Israeli parliament halts police tracking of COVID-19 patients’ cellphones

The Israeli parliament altered a government bill which authorised the police to track cell phones of all people that need to be quarantined due to possible Coronavirus infection. According to the changes, tracking will be applied only on a sample of verified patients who are currently quarantined in their homes. The police would have to provide a weekly update on the efficiency of tracking and to delete the tracking information within 72 hours. The Health Ministry would be in charge of providing the police with the sample list of patients to be monitored, so the police would not have direct access to the full list of patients. The original government bill was meant to replace temporary emergency regulations. These emergency regulations were implemented during the past  month and authorised the police to track the location of any person obligated to be in quarantine. The revised bill still needs to be approved by the government and the parliament.