Israel is preparing to issue biometric IDs

New regulations and orders introduced by the Ministers Committee for Biometric Applications set the ground for a two years biometric IDs issuance trial period. The Ministry of Home Affairs is making final preparations to start issuing the IDs that will contain encoded fingerprints and facial image, and will be stored in a national database. A campaign led by privacy activists ...

ISPs to inform clients of hazardous websites

The Israeli Knesset approved the 49th amendment to the Communications Act (Bezeq and Broadcasting) (link to the amendment - in Hebrew). According to the amendment, which was proposed by parliament member Alex Miller, Internet service providers (ISPs) will be required to offer their clientele website screening services free of charge and to notify them about "offensive websites" which include ...

Google street view approved in Israel

Following a long governmental discussion during the past few months, and after considering privacy and security concerns, the justice ministry, through the Law Technology and Information Authority (ILITA), released its conditional permit for Google to operate Street View in Israel.

Google's well known Street View service allows Google Maps users to view panoramic photographs of streets and other public spaces, ...

Electricity company to provide internet services

Israel's Electricity authority, has issued the Israeli Electricity Corporation (IEC) a permit to engage in communications and in particular provide Internet infrastructure. The permit is subject to separating the communication business from the day-to-day electricity activities of IEC, and forming a separate company that IEC may hold only 49% of its shares. This was noted to be important due to ...

Israel prepares for cyber attack

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced yesterday the establishment of a new national governmental body which will co-ordinate and manage Israel's defense and development needs in the information security field and the ongoing cyber war. Netanyahu stated that over the next few years hundreds of millions of Shekels (the Israeli currency) will be allocated to the establishment and running of ...

Israeli Police receive further access to genetic data

The Israeli Parliament, the "Knesset", has voted in favor of  a third amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law (enforcement rights - body search and seizure of identifying information) (3rd amendment) - 2011 (The law - in Hebrew). The new law broadens the authorities of the Israeli Police and enables them to use genetic information retrieved from suspects who have previously been ...

Apple and Google pressured to add privacy policies

Over the last few months there has been a lot of pressure on International companies like Google and Apple to improve their privacy policies and protection of their customer's private information. Although privacy issues have been on congress's table for a while now, they have recently been brought back into the spotlights due to numerous privacy violations, including the hacking ...