The Australian Bureau of Statistics has issued an apology for the rather naughty code on a same-sex marriage survey form.
The word BUMSEX was inadvertedly displayed across the envelope of a friend of Jess Wheeler who, according to 9News, uploaded an image of the cheeky envelope to Twitter.
The ABS acknowledged the faux pas as genuine, explaining it was a result of a mathematical algorithm used to generate random unique codes.
“The ABS acknowledges that in issuing 16 million barcodes it did not check and remove words and phrases that may be offensive,” Deputy statistician Jonathan Palmer said in a statement.
“The ABS apologises to the survey recipient and will issue a new form if requested.”
“The codes were issued using an algorithm generating more than two quintillion combinations (2,000,000,000,000,000,000) of letters and numbers in order to generate highly secure barcodes.
“The ABS will check newly issued barcodes.”
Response from @ABSCensus about that BUMSEX #marriageequality #postalvote barcode. #VoteYes @dailytelegraph pic.twitter.com/b71U8jknZW
— Jack Morphet (@JackMorphet) September 16, 2017
Woops.