Israeli security agency granted access to geolocation data collected for anti-terrorism

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has authorised the country's internal security agency to use a previously secret tranche of mobile phone geolocation data, gathered to combat terrorism, to retrace the movements of individuals with confirmed cases of the coronavirus and identify people they've interacted with who should be quarantined. After Parliament's Secret Services Subcommittee ended its discussions without approving the measure, Netanyahu said the government would approve emergency regulations that would allow the use for 30 days, with the attorney general's permission. Netanyahu's government also authorised prison sentences of up to six months for anyone breaching isolation orders; barring visitors to prisons and detection facilities; and allowing the police to break up gatherings of more than ten people.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/world/middleeast/israel-coronavirus-cellphone-tracking.html
 

Writer: David M. Halbfinger, Isabel Keshner, and Ronen Bergman
Publication: New York Times