Wow... how the Israeli Government keeps respecting privacy, while demanding that every corporation be sure to dot the i's and cross the t's on its protection of privacy. This time, it’s the "dog database" smartphone app, which the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture began distributing through app stores in recent months. The app publicly discloses the personal information of all dog owners in Israel, in what may be considered an unlawful violation of the privacy of dog owners, pursuant to the Israeli data protection and privacy laws. The app lets users search the database by the names of dog owners, and retrieve their address and phone number. It offers access to the contact details of members of Knesset (the Israeli parliament), Israeli celebrities and senior IDF officers - that own dogs.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, "Regulating the Supervision of Canines Law clearly enumerates the information that must be stored in the database (name, address, etc.). This issue was even deliberated in the Knesset (in its committee on Economic Affairs) when the law was approved, where it was decided that the public interest in establishing a reliable and publicly accessible database trumps the right to privacy." The ministry also emphasized that dog owners may request that their telephone number be removed from the database.

As expected, the app has prompted harsh criticism by many, including the Israeli Digital Rights Movement, which said that the app illustrates how the government is yet again negligent in safeguarding personal information. Source (in Hebrew): Calcalist (by Omer Cabir).