Israel: anti-terror technology now counters coronavirus

Written by David Fletcher 19 Mar 2020
Israel: anti-terror technology now counters coronavirus

Israel’s government has approved emergency regulations to enable the Shin Bet to perform mass surveillance of phones belonging to Israelis who contracted COVID-19. This is not to monitor quarantined people, but to track the movements of those found to be coronavirus carriers, to see with whom they interacted in the 14 days before they were diagnosed. Those who were contacted will receive SMS messages instructing them to enter home quarantine. Netanyahu announced the use of these digital counterterrorism measures, as one of several drastic steps to curb the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. He acknowledged that the digital measures might interfere with people’s privacy, but he argued that Taiwan has successfully used similar means in order to stop the coronavirus spread. Public criticism and warnings by human rights groups mean that authorities must limit these measures to only thirty days.

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