Following the decision of the Israeli government to submit a bill allowing phone tracking by the Secret Service for the purpose of COVID-19 tracing, a group of Israeli privacy experts and leaders, including Haim Ravia, Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, Karine Nahon, Michael Birnhack, Niva Elkin-Koren, Anat Ben-David, Eran Toch, former heads of the Israeli data protection authority Yoram Hacohen and Rivki Dvash and others, is forming a data protection foundation to serve as an alternative to the Israeli data protection authority.
The Israeli authority, they say, has been excluded from the deliberations regarding using secret service capabilities for contact tracing. The foundation will address the issue of civilian alternatives to contact tracing and will promote the amendment of the Israeli data protection legislation which has not been updated since 1996.