Government hashing out privacy-safety balance for Shin Bet phone tracking

The Prime Minister’s Office says the government is working to strike a balance between allowing the Shin Bet security service to track the phones of carriers of the coronavirus and limiting privacy violations.

Earlier in the evening, the government approved a controversial measure to allow the Shin Bet to use cellular data to retrace the steps of those infected with the virus in order to find people who were in contact with them and instruct them to go into quarantine.

This proposal, which has raised a number of privacy and civil liberties concerns, still requires final approval by the Knesset’s subcommittee on clandestine services.

“The prime minister did not accept the original version of the decision and requested many more restrictions in order to limit the scope of the information, the amount of people with access to it and to ensure that this information is not used for any purpose besides the fight against the corona pandemic,” the PMO says.

The government says this power will end 30 days after it is granted by the Knesset subcommittee.

Government officials stress that this effort is meant to save lives.

— Judah Ari Gross