The ABS may re-examine how long it keeps Census names, addresses and other data.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says it has hired privacy consultancy Galaxia to assess its data-management systems ahead of the next Census slated for 2021.

Galaxia will undertake an independent privacy impact assessment (PIA) to spot potential privacy issues or risks and recommend ways to manage them.

It comes after recent announcements that consulting firm PwC would build and operate the online platform for the 2021 Census, hosted on Amazon Web Services.

“We are taking a ‘privacy by design’ approach to planning and conducting the Census. This ensures the privacy of individuals is considered at every step, right across the program,” Census division general manager Chris Libreri said.

“An important part of the assessment process, for Galexia, will be wide-ranging external stakeholder consultation. This will help identify privacy risks and concerns, and ensure appropriate mitigation strategies are in place.”

In previous years, the names and addresses of individuals entered on the census form were destroyed within about 18 months, once the ABS processed the survey.

Before the dramatic failure of the 2016 Census, the ABS expanded this timeframe to four years.

A Senate committee probe into the events surrounding the 2016 survey suggested this change was designed to expand government data-matching abilities.

The committee called on the ABS to conduct all future census PIA externally, which is why Galaxia is now involved.