The Israeli government cannot keep using its internal security agency Shin Bet’s mobile phone tracking mechanisms to contain the COVID-19 pandemic without a legislation, Israel’s top court ruled on April 26, Israeli dailies Haaretz and Times of Israel reported. In its capacity as the High Court of Justice, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that the government must “starts the process of legislation” to set terms of such tracking by April 30 and completes it within “several weeks”. To continue Shin Bet’s involvement in this kind of surveillance beyond April 30, Court President Esther Hayut said, “There is a need to codify its authority to do this [tracking] as part of appropriate primary legislation, such as a temporary order. This is in light of the fact that the method chosen by the government as part of its authorization decision is a means that deals a serious blow to the constitutional right to privacy, and this shouldn’t be taken lightly.” This ruling comes at a time when different states in India are using mobile phone and location data to track suspected COVID-19 patients in the absence of any oversight mechanisms or legislation to protect people's privacy. At the time of publication, Israel had 15,443 cases of COVID-19 and 201 deaths, as per the Johns Hopkins tracker. On March 17, the Israeli government had approved giving emergency powers to Shin Bet to monitor the mobile phones and credit card data of people suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19. Through this, the government will…
