Israeli Supreme Court: "A smartphone is a person's private realm"

“A smartphone is akin to a mobile vault containing photos, at times sensitive photos, personal correspondence and data, some of which is confidential”, according to a recent Israeli Supreme Court criminal appeal judgment that sentenced a thief convicted of robbing cellphones from teenagers to three years in prison. 

The court justified the relatively severe punishment in that the “loss of ...

Israel launches an online searchable database of designs

The Israeli Patent Authority at the Israeli Ministry of Justice announced the launch of a new online database of designs approved for publication. Thus far, those interested in searching the designs database had to do so in-presence at the Patent Authority's offices in Jerusalem. The new database, accessible through the Patent Authority's website, gives convenient access to review the designs' ...

Madonna hacker sentenced to imprisonment

Mr. Adi Lederman, who pleaded guilty to hacking Madonna’s crew’s computers, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison and a fine of 15,000 NIS (approximately US $4,000). The Magistrate Court in Tel Aviv also sentenced Mr. Lederman to an additional, but suspended, 6 month imprisonment.

In February this year, the office of the State's attorney charged Mr. Lederman with ...

New court ruling illustrates how not to sue Amazon in Israel

The Tel Aviv District Court has ruled in favor of Amazon.com, Inc. and quashed an extraterritorial service of process certification that was previously granted against Amazon, ex parte, at the request of Dead Sea Premier Cosmetics Laboratories Ltd. 

Premier engages in manufacturing and marketing of cosmetic products. Judge Hanna Plinner of the Tel Aviv District court held that Premier lacks ...

Israel's Attorney-General: Employees Cannot be Compelled to Use Biometric Time Clocks

In a brief submitted to the National Court of Labor, the Israeli Attorney-General asserts that using biometric time clocks at the workplace, without obtaining employee consent, disproportionately violates their right to privacy: "In the absence of consent, compelling an employee to provide a biometric sample for the purpose of time logging, in itself, does not confrom with the duties of ...

Israeli Court quashes an interim order to block access to Popcorn Time

The Tel Aviv District Court has quashed the interim order it issued this past May that had compelled six Internet Service Providers in Israel to “use the measures at their disposal to block the access from Israel to the infringing domain names and website addresses … so that Internet subscribers from Israel would have no possibility of communicating and/or surfing ...

Israeli District Court: Google Must Remove Defaming Search Results

Google must honor requests to remove search results if they are clearly defaming, according to a recent Israeli District Court holding (the District Court’s decision, in Hebrew, is available here) delivered on an appeal of the Tel Aviv Magistrate Court’s judgment from last year (the Magistrate court’s decision, in Hebrew, is available here).
 
The dispute in question ...

Israel Supervisor of Banks Issues Cyber Defense Circular

The Supervisor of Banks at the Bank of Israel (Israel's central bank), David Zaken, has issued a circular regarding "Cyber Defense Management" at banking corporations and credit card companies.

The circular specifies that banking corporations must place special emphasis on managing cyber-related risks, and take the necessary measures to effectively manage these risks. According to the circular, banking corporations particularly ...