Israeli Privacy In Danger

For those of you that have been following, Israel is going through one of its worse periods as a democracy. The parties that now constitute the Israeli government have launched a campaign to exponentially strengthen the governments’ power, at the expense of the conventional legal and democratic barriers that in a normal democracy, keep those in power at bay. In a rapid, almost violent move, the government, and its controlled parliament (the Israeli Knesset) are legislating a blitz of laws to expand law making power, while minimizing judicial oversight. Despite desperate opposition measures, in my own personal view, it is not a matter of “if” this will happen, but “when”.

Israel will become a dictatorship. As an attorney, with a keen interest and concern for Privacy Rights (of myself, and everyone else), this has me losing sleep at night. It would seems that many, too many people, do not understand what will happen.

In a dictatorship, the danger to information privacy of the ordinary citizen is significant. The government has full control over the country's legal and political systems, as the new Israeli legislation aims to achieve. This will eventually including the power to restrict the citizen’s ability to access free information on the one hand, and monitor its citizens' communications on the other hand. This control can lead to severe violations of individual privacy rights and may include the following dangers:

In a dictatorship (look at Iran, for example), the government uses its vast resources to monitor its citizens' activities, including their online communications, phone calls, and texts. This type of mass surveillance is often done without warrants or other legal safeguards and can be used to target political dissidents, journalists, and other perceived threats to the regime.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Israeli government used surveillance technologies, such as contact tracing, and mobile phone tracking, to monitor and control citizens' movements, after landing from certain “Red” countries, or reporting they have Covid. In some cases, this surveillance was used to enforce quarantine measures and identify individuals who were potentially infected with the virus. Concerns were raised about the potential for abuse and the lack of transparency regarding how the data was being collected and used were set aside by emergency regulation. The Israeli government had the Israeli Internal Security Branch (“Shabak”), normally assigned to monitor terror threats, use its tools and technology to accomplish this monitoring. True, that the Shabak itself was very reluctant to do so, but in a dictatorship, the nay sayers will be replaced.

Another example from 2020 - Black Lives Matter Protests. In 2020, following the killing of George Floyd by police i, protests erupted across the UD, demanding an end to police brutality and racial injustice. In response, U.S. government used surveillance technologies, such as aerial surveillance and social media monitoring, to track and monitor protests' participants. This raised concerns about violation of citizens' privacy rights.

Currently, there are mass demonstrations in Israel, at least twice a week, drawing in up to 300,000 people. Once judicial power is in the hand of the government, and considering parliamentary oversight committees are powerless, what will stop the government from arresting people based on SM posts, or blocking use of SM from certain individuals, that are targeted as “leaders”?

The current government is moving fast forward to deny any authority from the legal system. Citizens will be left without legal Remedies. The legal system will become subservient to the government, and there may be limited, or none at all, legal remedies for privacy violations by the government and its arms.

In future of Israel, as we turn from democracy to dictatorship, the danger to information privacy is significant. The responsibility for protecting privacy rights lies with the government and its legal and political systems. Without transparency, accountability, and legal remedies, citizens will continue to be at risk of severe privacy violations.