Interior Minister Eli Yishai on the biometric law: "I'm not afraid to change my mind." I will set up a team of experts"

Minister Michael Eitan, who leads the opposition to the biometric database: "Even if the Knesset approves the law, the Minister of the Interior can change it. It must not be left to the struggle" * MK Shetrit "You are scaring the public"

Efi Arzi School of Computer Science at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center and the Israeli Forum for Information Security (www.ifis.org.il) headed by Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror, held a panel today, Wednesday, August 12.8.09, XNUMX, on the subject of a biometric database in Israel and the various aspects related to its establishment. Representatives of the government, the Knesset, experts and academics participated in the discussion, including Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai, Minister Michael Eitan, Member of Knesset Meir Shitrit and others.

According to Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who sat on the panel throughout the discussion, "the issue is very important. I'm not afraid to change my mind. In my opinion it is not wrong. A person is allowed to change his mind. There is no doubt that the discussion here is very complex. It was important for me to hear the experts and see the audience's body language.

I tell you as a person who has sat in secret discussions for quite a few years, it is not easy to come and say that the security situation today is such that it is apparently possible even without having a database. I think there needs to be cooperation between the academy and the government. It is our duty to be attentive, but it is also true that academics, when coming to make decisions, saw different things. At the practical level, at the execution level, things are different, said Yeshi.

"I am convinced that the public does not know enough what the meaning of the reservoir is, both in the negative and positive aspects. And so, when Minister Eitan contacted me, I told him I was ready to listen. And I heard. I also know the law as a former interior minister, but still not enough."

Yishai concluded by saying that "I am open and ready to establish a team of information security experts who will sit down and come up with any idea in order to reassure tens of percent of Israeli society. Because this is a very fundamental issue, and this case is sensitive and problematic and delicate, and we need to see how we check and do everything so that even in the future, the database will be protected, how we provide ourselves and the citizens of the State of Israel with protection so that the database will not be misused."

Minister Michael Eitan said that: "The struggle and the decisions are not over, and the arrangements are not over. Even if the Knesset approves the biometric database law, the Minister of the Interior has the authority by virtue of the law to change it with the regulations he will establish. The fact that Minister Yishai made sure to come and participate in the discussion and hear information from information security officials and privacy activists shows that things are not closed and he is open to suggestions." Minister Eitan called on all those working to protect the right to privacy not to stop the fight and to use all democratic means to convince the government and the Minister of the Interior to withdraw the law and amend it and alternatively to have a substantial influence on the regulations. Minister Eitan added that "during the discussions the question of confidentiality came up. Woe to the country whose parliament does not discuss secret matters, in the appropriate arrangements. This method corrupts the security forces - they will misuse it! Even the one who drafted the bill, Deputy State Attorney Mike Blass, said that the role of the Knesset is to examine the constitutional questions and the protection of privacy, but in practice the chairman prevented this discussion. And in the end, when they voted on the law in the committee - only one committee member voted. Sheetrit".

MK Meir Shitrit, chairman of the science and technology committee of the Knesset which discusses the law, said that "in Israel there are databases containing details of hundreds and thousands of citizens and there is no protection and no law for them. You are scaring the public." According to Shitrit, there is no debate about the need for biometric certificates, the debate is about the database. According to him, the level of documentation in Israel is one of the lowest in the world and the citizens of the country live at risk because of the "unbearable ease of forging Israeli identity cards". Shatrit added that in Israel there are 350,000 people who live with fake identification, who live in the country as citizens for everything, including thieves, criminals and terrorists.

Dr. Karin Barzilai-Nahon, head of the Center for Society and Information from the University of Washington, who reviewed the issue of the use of biometric databases in the world, also participated in the discussion. According to her, "the committee was flooded with misleading and sometimes biased information. There is no country in the democratic world that has a biometric database for the entire population that is mandatory for all residents." Barzilai-Nahon explained that there are countries where biometric databases are used, but in none is it mandatory for the entire population. Barzilai-Nahun gave as an example Hong Kong, where there is use of a biometric database, but one that is only temporary, set up solely for the purpose of issuing certificates and destroyed after a few hours. According to her, there are two countries where there are plans to establish a biometric database, France and England, but where registration in the database will not be mandatory. And the estimates in these countries are that the number of people who will be registered in the biometric database will be tiny. Nahon concluded by saying that it is not for nothing that most countries today do not have a reservoir, this is a very problematic issue. Some do not want to take the step and in some it is because of a public debate, and the information given to the Knesset committee on the subject is problematic.

For previous articles on the subject on the science website:

• The Public Council for the Protection of Privacy: The biometric database - a security risk that will cost billions
• The Privacy Protection Commissioner of Ontario: the biometric database proposed in Israel - a slippery slope to a police state