The Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation has approved to promote legislation of a 2011 bill introducing comprehensive amendments to the Protection of Privacy Law giving far-reaching enforcement powers to the Israeli privacy regulator. The bill will now head to the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, for first reading.

According to the bill’s version from 2011, the Israeli privacy regulator will be granted much broader and more rigorous powers of supervision, power to investigate when suspicion of criminal conduct arises, and the authority to impose higher monetary sanctions of up to 6.4 million NIS (approximately 1.8 million Dollars). The 2011 bill also sought to indirectly expand the definition of "Information" to which data protection rules apply so that it would include genetic, biometric and location data not currently captured by the definition of “Information” in the Protection of Privacy Law.

CLICK HERE to read the Protection of Privacy Bill (Amendment No. 12) (Enforcement Powers), 5772-2011 (in Hebrew)