CONDITIONS OF USE

USER RESPONSIBILITIES

The Census and Statistics Act 1905 includes a legislative guarantee to respondents that their confidentiality will be protected. This is fundamental to the trust the Australian public has in the ABS, and that trust is in turn fundamental to the excellent quality of ABS information. Without that trust, survey respondents may be less forthcoming or truthful in answering our questionnaires. For more information, see 'Avoiding inadvertent disclosure' and 'Microdata' on our web page How the ABS keeps your information confidential.


TABLEBUILDER

In accordance with the Census and Statistics Act 1905, data in TableBuilder are subjected to a confidentiality process before release. The release of microdata must satisfy the ABS legislative obligation to release information in a manner that is not likely to enable the identification of a particular person or organisation.

This confidentiality process is applied to avoid releasing information that may lead to the identification of individuals, families, households, dwellings or businesses.

Prior to being granted access to TableBuilder users must agree to the following ABS Terms and Conditions of TableBuilder Access:

• understand that the ABS has taken great care to ensure that the information on the survey output record file is correct and as accurate as possible and understand that ABS does not guarantee, or accept any legal liability whatsoever arising from, or connected to, the use of any material contained within, or derived from TableBuilder
• understand that all data extracted from the Survey Output Record File through TableBuilder will be confidentialised prior to being supplied to me and that as a result, no reliance should be placed on small cells as they are impacted by random adjustment, respondent and processing errors
• inform the ABS, through your Contact Officer, upon leaving your organisation that your access is disabled
• not to provide my TableBuilder user ID and password access to any other person or organisation.

CONFIDENTIALISED UNIT RECORD FILES (CURF)

In accordance with the Census and Statistics Act 1905, data in CURFs are subjected to a confidentiality process before release. The release of microdata must satisfy the ABS legislative obligation to release information in a manner that is not likely to enable the identification of a particular person or organisation.

This legislation allows the Australian Statistician to approve release of unit record data. All CURFs released have been approved by the Statistician. Prior to being granted access to CURFs, each organisation's Responsible Officer must submit a CURF Undertaking to the ABS. The CURF Undertaking is required by legislation and states that, prior to CURFs being released to an organisation, a Responsible Officer must undertake to ensure that the organisation will abide by the conditions of use of CURFs. Individual users are bound by the undertaking signed by the Responsible Officer.

All CURF users are required to read and abide by the conditions and restrictions in the User Manual: Responsible Use of ABS CURFs. Any breach of the CURF Undertaking may result in withdrawal of service to individuals and/or organisations. Further information is contained in the Consequences of Failing to Comply web page.


CONDITIONS OF SALE

All ABS products and services are provided subject to the ABS Conditions of Sale. Any queries relating to these Conditions of Sale should be referred to intermediary.management@abs.gov.au.


PRICE

Microdata access is priced according to the ABS Pricing Policy and Commonwealth Cost Recovery Guidelines. For details refer to ABS Pricing Policy on the ABS website. For microdata prices refer to the Microdata prices web page.


HOW TO APPLY FOR ACCESS

To use this data in the TableBuilder tool, read the information on the Registration Centre web pages. To apply for access to TableBuilder products, register or log in to the Registration Centre.

To use the CURF, read the How to Apply for Microdata web page. To apply for access to the CURF, register and apply in MiCRO.


AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES

The ABS/Universities Australia Agreement provides participating universities with access to a range of ABS products and services. This includes access to microdata. For further information, university clients should refer to the ABS/Universities Australia Agreement web page.


FURTHER INFORMATION

The Microdata Entry page on the ABS website contains links to microdata related information to assist users to understanding and access microdata. For further information users should email microdata.access@abs.gov.au or telephone (02) 6252 7714.