Israeli Knesset Commences Deliberations on an Amended Protection of Privacy Law

The Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) commenced deliberations on the Protection of Privacy Bill (Amendment No. 14), 5782-2022, after its approval in first reading late January. The chair of the committee, Member of the Knesset Gilad Kariv, indicated that this amendment is “only the beginning” and that the mission at hand for the committee ...

Google Overhauls its Cookie Replacement Plan

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, revealed that it is working on a new user tracking system to replace the use of third-party advertisement cookies. The announcement arrives after Google faced harsh criticism for its previous cookie replacement plan.

Google’s first plan aimed to replace the use of cookies by allowing advertisers to target ads based on tens of thousands of small ...

EU Privacy Regulators Increase GDPR Enforcement Efforts

Following a decision given by the European Data Protection Supervisor and the Austrian Data Protection Authority in January, the French data protection regulator (CNIL) has also declared the use of Google Analytics for processing personal data of EU data subjects to violate the GDPR. CNIL concluded that Google Analytics transfers data to the US without implementing sufficient supplementary measures ...

China: New Rules on Algorithm-Based Recommendation Services

A new set of rules published by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) requires companies to allow users to control how their information is used in algorithmic-based recommendations. The rules are set to take effect on March 1, 2022.

The rules require companies that use algorithm-based recommendations on their social media feeds to inform their users about the purpose and ...

Israeli Bar: Use of Free Email and Storage Tools Violates Ethics Rules

A new comprehensive opinion by the Ethics Committee of the Israeli Bar states that lawyers who use a free email service provider (such as Gmail) to send and receive attorney-client communications violate their duty of confidentiality under the professional rules of conduct (the ethics rules).

In its opinion, the Ethics Committee addressed the concerns regarding lawyers’ conduct in the digital ...

Israeli Privacy Regulator Published Final Paper on Privacy Protection Officers

Following the draft paper published in October 2020, the Israeli Privacy Protection Authority published its final paper on the advisable appointment of Chief Privacy Officers (CPOs, sometimes referred to as Data Protection Officers – DPOs) in Israeli organizations. The paper explains that although Israeli law does not mandate the appointment of CPO/DPO (other than in one isolated instance related to ...

Israel Police Accused of Systematic Warrantless Surveillance of Smartphones; Attorney General Investigates

An investigative journalism report published by the “Calcalist” daily newspaper accuses the Israel National Police of spying on innocent individuals by using NSO’s “Pegasus” surreptitious surveillance software on their mobile phones, without warrants authorizing the Police to do so.

The Police reportedly use Pegasus to surveil protesters, intelligence targets, politicians, and other public officials, as part of preliminary but warrantless ...