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Israeli High Court: Legislation Required to Regulate COVID-19 Mobile Tracking
Israel's Supreme Court, with the Knesset in the background. (israeltourism/Creative Commons)

Israeli High Court: Legislation Required to Regulate COVID-19 Mobile Tracking

The Israeli Supreme Court ruled on Sunday that the country can only continue its mobile-phone tracking program, which has been deployed in the fight against the spread of coronavirus, with appropriate legislation. Current law, the court said, does not allow for the widespread tracking of mobile devices, which could be considered a grave danger to privacy. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s cabinet approved emergency regulations in March that allow the Shin Bet security agency to use the data from cellphone towers to track the movements of people infected by the virus. The method is normally used to fight terrorism but now enables the Health Ministry to locate and alert people who may have been exposed to the novel virus. The presiding justices gave the government until April 30 to initiate the necessary legislation, and a few weeks after that to complete it, if the tracking of citizens’ movements through their mobile devices is to continue. “The state’s choice to use its preventative security service for monitoring those who wish it no harm, without their consent, raises great difficulties and a suitable alternative, compatible with the principles of privacy, must be found,” the court said. The court also ruled that journalists confirmed to have been infected cannot be tracked without consent since the monitoring of their locations potentially endangers their sources and represents a violation of freedom of the press.

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