Your Personal Information - Managing and Operating our Business

ABS employees, contractors, secondees, job applicants and referees

We keep and handle human resources records including employment applications to enable us to properly manage our human resources activities and the employment of staff. The types of personal information in our human resources files include:

  • basic demographic details including age, sex, marital status and emergency contact details
  • personal characteristics (e.g. date of birth, country of birth, languages spoken, education qualification and employment information)
  • personal identifiers (e.g. name, government related identifiers, AGS number)
  • business characteristics (e.g. business name, address, contact details)
  • security clearances and criminal history checks
  • applications for employment and supporting documents
  • selection committee reports
  • employment contracts and other records relating to terms and conditions of employment
  • details of financial and other personal interests supplied for the purpose of managing perceived or potential conflicts of interest including disclosed financial or trading records
  • proof of Australian citizenship
  • records relating to salary, employment benefits and leave
  • records relating to working from home arrangements
  • taxation details
  • banking information necessary to pay salary and wages
  • superannuation contributions
  • information relating to employees’ training, development and performance

We also collect sensitive information on:

  • racial or ethnic origin
  • results of police checks
  • health information (medical certificates or health related information supplied by an employee or their health practitioner).

The ABS uses CCTV video recording in all its locations for the safety of employees and visitors, and security of our offices. We also monitor employee use of email, internet and other computer resources to ensure appropriate use of resources. Employees are told of this monitoring when joining the ABS.

The ABS may use third-party service providers to process job applications and manage the recruitment process. Personal information about prospective employees and their referees may be disclosed to third-party service providers for this purpose.

Employment information is kept securely and when no longer required is destroyed in line with current legislative requirements.

Please see the Recruitment Privacy Statement for more information about your privacy when applying for a job at the ABS.

Customers and stakeholders (users of ABS products like TableBuilder, DataLab and clients who request data sets, data custodians and integrators)

The types of personal information we hold include:

  • basic contact details including name and address, phone number, email address for business and private, name of employer, job title and signature.
  • business characteristics (e.g. business name, address, contact details, ABN, organisation email domains)
  • payment details, including credit card details, for services or products procured.

Personal information is retained and then destroyed in line with current legislative requirements.

Payment information is retained and destroyed in line with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.

Website users

When you visit our website we use cookies to collect the following information:

  • your IP address
  • the date and time of your visit
  • the pages you accessed and the documents you downloaded
  • the search terms you used
  • the previous site you visited
  • your top level domain name (such as .com, .gov.au)
  • your network location name (such as your internet service provider or organisation's name)
  • any cookies that your browser has presented to our server.

Complaints, queries and Freedom of Information (FOI) requests

We welcome feedback and will attend to complaints, queries and requests promptly. To do this we need to collect your personal information which includes:

  • a way of responding to you either through email, address or phone number
  • information about your complaint, query or request which could include another person’s details.
Back to top of the page