Australian Bureau of Statistics now tracking people using their mobile phone

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is now tracking people using their mobile phone data. After screwing up the 2016 Australian Census to the point where the census data collected may well be useless, the ABS may now be infringing people's privacy and potentially impacting people's security. The ABS has admitted to tapping into mobile phone information provided by an Australian communications company from the 18th of April to the 1st of May 2016. The full extent of the tracking is not known, and it is unknown if the ABS is still tracking people using their mobile phone data as a key data point. The ABS has been asked which company provided the data, did the people provide consent, was a privacy impact statement undertaken, what method if any was used to anonymise the data, was the data matched to the last census data, has any of the data been on-sold, and why this information is not being made available but the ABS has refused to answer. The ABS engaging in tracking Australians using their mobile device data has been describes as "ethically dubious" by Electronic Frontiers Australia board member Justin Warren.