Israel Halts Disputed Omicron Tracing Through Phone Surveillance

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Israel said on Thursday it was halting the use of mobile phone tracing to curb the spread of the new coronavirus variant Omicron, a practice that had been challenged by privacy watchdogs. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's government authorized the surveillance technology, which matches virus carriers' locations against other mobile phones nearby to determine their contacts, to be used for Omicron cases on Nov. 27. That authorization will not be renewed after it lapses at midnight between Thursday and Friday, Bennett's office said in a statement, citing "up-to-date situational assessments."

The technology, originally developed by Israel's Shin Bet security agency for counter-terrorism and counter-espionage, had "contributed over the last week to the effort to break the chain of infection", the statement said. Israel has confirmed at three cases of the new variant and at least 30 others are suspected of having contracted it, the Health Ministry said. Earlier on Thursday, Israel's Supreme Court rejected a petition by four rights groups seeking to repeal the measure. "Considering the uncertainty around the Omicron variant and its effects..., it has not been proven that the Shin Bet authorization poses a disproportionate infringement on the right to privacy which would justify its striking down," the ruling said.

A public test of Shin Bet's capabilities

[VeryFluffyBunny]

I'm not surprised by this. A momentary act of good will & wanting to do the right thing to help people thwarted because more than likely it'd expose Shin Bet's surveillance & tracking capabilities to the world, "warts & all."

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[eneville]

If we could trust governments and third parties to purge the data after a month I'd be happy with it, but we can't trust them.

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[VeryFluffyBunny]

We already know that the Five Eyes & many other govt security agencies around the the world, including Shin Bet are already doing 24/7 dragnet surveillance, building profiles, etc.. It's not a case of them doing it or not but what they use it for. In this case, it would've been to mitigate health threats from the pandemic, but they've chosen not to.

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[Anonymous Coward]

This is most likely just the public position. Behind the scenes they're still tracking everyone's phones.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

So now they are back to tracking without telling

[ffkom]

The thing with secret agencies claiming they stop doing something is that, apart from being confirmation they did it before, it means nothing. They will continue the tracking, but just not talk about it publicly, as they did before.

Govement Gives Up Power -- Right LOL!

[BrendaEM]

Sure, I have a bridge to sell you,

Free Occupied Palestine.

[ikhider]

Even better if Israel can stop theft of land, imprisoning children, and extrajudicial executions, when not destroying all of Lebanon and other neighboring countries. https://www.amnesty.org/en/loc... [amnesty.org]