The Knesset (the Israeli legislature) enacted an amendment to the Coronavirus measures law to allow for technology-monitored home isolation of Israelis returning from abroad. The law recognizes that those returning from abroad carry a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, particularly global variants of the virus, and thus should be given a choice of technology-monitored home isolation or a physically guarded motel-isolation.

The technology-monitored home isolation will be based on an electronic monitoring bracelet or a smartphone app, each designed to monitor the location of the individual and alert authorities if the individual oversteps their geo-fenced perimeter at home. The personal data collected through these measures will be maintained in a database owned by the Israeli Ministry of Health, but held by a private company that operates these technological monitoring measures and who will be deemed the “holder” of the database. The database must be safeguarded at the highest level of data security according to the Protection of Privacy Regulations (Information Security).

The data collected through these technological monitoring measures will be discarded once it is longer needed, and not later than at the end of the isolation period of the individual, except for data regarding those suspected of violating the isolation order or tampering with the technological measures, whose data will be kept for at least 30 days. The data collected will be deemed privileged information usable only in investigating and prosecuting violations of an isolation order.

CLICK HERE to read the new law on Technology-Monitored Isolation (in Hebrew).