Maricopa County is one of two test sites for the Census Bureau’s digital response form. This is a step toward a digital 2020 census.

Residents in Maricopa County and Savannah, Georgia will be asked to fill out census data forms online rather than returning them through snail mail. This method is expected to save money and increase the response rate. Census Bureau regional director Cathy Lacy said the online security census data is military grade.

“It’s extremely secure and that’s actually one of the reasons we did not use the internet options in 2010. Because we weren’t as confident." She said. "We’ve actually been testing with the American Community Survey with an internet option and we’ve had no breaches, no concerns whatsoever.”

The test will include 1.6 million households in Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler and Wickenburg.