The minister responsible for the census has compared it to Facebook, saying concern about its ability to track people is "much ado about nothing".

Michael McCormack, who also has responsibility for small business, was responding to Senate powerbroker Nick Xenophon, who on Monday vowed to withhold his name from the census and face fines of $180 per day rather than have his name kept on file.

The Bureau has announced that the names collected in this year's census will be retained instead of being thrown away after processing, as in the past. They will be used to create linkage keys, which will allow the personal information in the census to be linked to information gleaned from other surveys to provide a richer picture of those surveyed. The answers could also be linked to medical, criminal, road traffic and educational records.

Although the names will be destroyed within four years, the linkage keys created from the names will be kept indefinitely.