At the same time, several members of the Knesset Science and Technology Committee appealed to return the law to the committee * MK Horowitz in a demonstration against the biometric law: "The law brings us another step closer to the 'Big Brother' state
16: 45 Update
Minister Michael Eitan:
A last-minute effort by the government and the Knesset to prevent the completion of the biometric database law
At the request of Minister Michael Eitan, today (Sunday) the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs held another discussion on the establishment of the biometric database. Following the discussion, the committee decided to hold another inquiry, with the participation of the Minister of Justice Yaakov Naman, the Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai, and the Minister Michael Eitan, in which the articles of the law concerning the establishment of the database will be discussed. If an agreement is reached on changes to the law, these will be brought up for further discussion before the Science and Technology Committee, before the vote on the bill in the second and third readings in the Knesset.
At the same time, the members of the Science and Technology Committee, MK Eitan Kabel (Labor), MK David Azoulai (Shas, chairman of the Interior Committee), MK Avraham Michaeli (Shas), MK Hamed Amar ( Israel Beitnou), MK Carmel Shama (Likud) submitted a revision this morning, the purpose of which is to bring back to the Science and Technology Committee the establishment of the biometric database, and to re-discuss the use that will be made of the biometric data of the citizens of the country.
The letter sent by the members of the Knesset to the chairman of the science committee reads: "We believe that there is room to re-discuss essential matters included in the proposal, including the nature of the biometric database, the possibility of using the data contained in it, and the proper balance between the various interests that the bill faces." It was also written - "... these issues, which are of the highest sensitivity and importance, require a new discussion while taking into account the possible damage to interests of the first degree, which in our opinion were not given sufficient weight in the proposal."
Minister Michael Eitan emphasized today that the leak of the database, if it occurs, will endanger the vital interests of the individual and the state. The parties to the law want to establish a special authority with an investment of tens of millions of shekels to maintain the database, which in fact has no practical need. According to Eitan - "The database is dangerous and violates privacy, its cost is high and the benefits that can be derived from it are questionable. Instead of protecting the reservoir, it is better to simply not establish it."
Minister Michael Eitan will make a last minute effort to stop the biometric database
Update - 26/7/2009, time 00:15
A last ditch effort to prevent the establishment of the biometric database. This evening (Motash) Minister Michael Eitan, who is responsible for the field of government service to the citizen, announced that tomorrow he will contact Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Robbie Rivlin and government ministers with a request to stop the establishment of the database and split its approval from the approval of the biometric law, in light of the wording of the law passed by Meir Shetrit (front) in the Science Committee.
MK Horowitz this evening participated in a demonstration against the biometric law at the Tel Aviv Cinematech plaza. The demonstration was organized by the Civil Rights Association.
MK Horowitz spoke at the demonstration and said: "The biometric law brings us another step closer to the big brother state. But we don't live in a reality show, we live in a reality that is going to be much more difficult for us as individuals if this law is passed. A biometric database is a great danger to the fundamental right to privacy, and may cause irreparable damage to the residents of Israel. This law has no counterpart in the free world, and rightly so. Against the background of the hair-raising lawlessness in the security of the databases in the country, it is appropriate to prevent the establishment of such a database in Israel.
Already today, the public is suffering from a serious violation of individual rights: the Communications Data Law, the Big Brother Law, the attempts to censor the Internet, the promiscuous wiretapping, the leaking of government databases to the Internet. In the face of this dangerous process, we must guarantee our freedom as individuals and our freedom - and prevent the establishment of the repository."
MK Horowitz went on to say that the way in which the law is promoted in the Knesset, through lightning legislation without in-depth discussion, is serious and dangerous: "The special committee that was established, chaired by MK Meir Shetrit Makdima, was designed to ensure a majority for the law without an in-depth discussion of its dangers. In practice, most of the members of the committee were not present at all at the discussions and Shitrit passes the law almost alone, in a marathon, problematic and not serious manner."
In summing up his remarks, MK Horowitz referred to the Netanyahu government and said: "This law is not an orphan. It is promoted within the framework of a series of draconian laws and proposals: the privatization of land, the trust laws, the deportation of refugees and their children, the individual demonstration law, the VAT on fruits and vegetables: all of these connect together into one struggle - the struggle for our democratic space, for sanity in the country."
MK Horowitz for the government to come to its senses and withdraw the biometric bill until a serious and in-depth discussion of the software is held in the Knesset.
Minister Michael Eitan said yesterday (Saturday): "The hundreds of demonstrators tonight are expressing the heart murmurs of hundreds of thousands of citizens, who will become suspects in the potential of any crime that will occur in the country following the activation of the biometric database. This database will cost millions of shekels, the risk of violating privacy is high and its usefulness, if any, is questionable and it may turn Israel into a police state."
Last week, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, headed by the Minister of Justice, Prof. Yaakov Naman, rejected Minister Michael Eitan's demand to stop the approval of the Biometrics Law. Minister Eitan justified his demand because of the fear of a leak from one central database, which could lead to a security breach and the privacy of citizens. The Ministerial Committee decided on the splitting of the database into two databases, one in the Ministry of the Interior and the other in the Ministry of Justice, where in the first stage there will be no connection between them.
A coded list of the names of the citizens will be placed in the Ministry of the Interior. In the second database, which will be set up at the Ministry of Justice, coded biometric data will be entered, without specifying names and personal details. By this separation, the level of information security will increase, in the event of a data leak from one of the two repositories. The rules for linking the repositories, if such a link is made - will be determined later.
Minister Eitan said at the meeting that "there is no necessity to establish a biometric database, even if we go for smart identity cards. The reservoir leak would be an event with irreversible consequences and damage. It could lead to a situation where, for a few shekels, any person could enter the database, pull out a fingerprint and put it anywhere he wanted, or he could examine a fingerprint he found and track different people."
Minister Neman did not accept Minister Eitan's absolute demand to stop the law and supported the compromise that was eventually accepted. Minister Neman said that "separation between the two reservoirs should be examined. The separation is intended to keep the information and secure it." Minister Neman stated that the separation and linking of the reservoirs will be done in coordination with the Minister of the Interior.
25 תגובות
An undemocratic law "Who would have believed that Israel, the home of the Jews of the world, would turn into a police state!!!"
It has already become my friend, but there are still some allowances left that the state has not yet issued!
Why legislate a law without conducting a large-scale public discussion???????????????
Who would have believed that Israel, the home of the Jews of the world, would turn into a police state!!!
http://hashabak.org/blog/?p=593
Indeed, I am sure that Minister Shitrit is full of good and pure intentions and he only demands the public good :/
The law must be withdrawn before it is too late
petition
http://www.atzuma.co.il/petition/mahadeva/1/
We don't really need the biometric database.
Those who need it - and I mean secret organizations with an increased level of information security - have the sufficient information anyway. And if these databases require an additional biometric upgrade, then the legislation should only enshrine the upgrade of the databases of these organizations, under the full supervision of a civil authority and under excellent security conditions.
A comprehensive biometric database - this is a project for which the required information security conditions have not yet matured, and it is a huge legal, economic and security risk, literally crying for generations, in the current state and level of information security.
The anchoring of such a database in the law, its establishment and operation - may serve the narrow interests of certain government officials and certain capitalists no less. They will be the only beneficiaries of the biometric project - at the expense of the general and at the expense of the common good. This may be one of the most blatant and overwhelming expressions of the connection between capital and government, and more precisely - the government in the service of capital.
I am surprised that organizations that specialize in legal integrity (the Association for the Quality of Government, for example), retired judges, senior lawyers, the Attorney's Office, relevant professional chambers such as the CPA Council, etc., the media at large - do not raise a significant voice in front of the shameful affair, and content themselves with somewhat independent speculation, if at all.
In Israel, they follow the US, where the terrorist list contains tens of thousands of citizens who in most cases entered the list simply because they protested against the injustices of the government or watched movies that do not really support the FBI or the CIA.
In addition, it seems to me (so I hope) that the security authorities in the country (the IDF, Shin Bet, Mossad) have sensitive and well-secured databases.
Perhaps the database simply should not be subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior but to the Ministry with experience in information security.
For those who have nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear from the pool.
If more thieves, rapists and murderers are caught thanks to the database, it will only benefit society.
The very eagerness to do it in the form of a hijacker proves that not everything is "pure"
And there is definitely an intention here to strengthen the power of the government at the expense of denying the privacy of the citizen.
It's okay to resist.
But 100 years from now, does anyone believe that there won't be a biometric database?
Everyone is afraid that the information will leak. But equally, the information can leak from the bank, the hospital, the police, the mobile company, the internet provider.
So what? Cancel all those bodies whose information they have can build a comprehensive profile of every citizen?
All this opposition seems to me like hallucinations about a utopian world and longing for simpler days.
The identity cards were created in the previous centuries. What to do Nowadays a person is no longer defined only by his last name, the village he came from, the serial number he carries, the height or the color of the poor. He is defined by DNA and only the identical twin can copy that.
Do not lend a hand to the establishment of the biometric database
Government offices have proven incapable of securing citizen databases
If a state auditor states it in the annual report, there is no debate about it and the leakage of the biometric database
It is a matter of short time
Experts from the best in Israel point out that the reservoir is very dangerous and that there are no good ways
protect him
Citizens should not be fooled because of one bill that does not match the opinion
of the public that was not involved in what was done
Who will guard the guards - one of the most important sentences there is!
People don't understand a simple thing, all people are the same! The fact that we are talking here about hacking or leaking the repository does not mean that this is the only scenario that can happen.
You forgot that the people who work in information security, or police officers who work in the police, high-tech people, members of the Knesset, people from the Ministry of the Interior - the common denominator for all of them is that they are people!
People are the unreliable creature behind the machine which may be reliable! The machine doesn't make mistakes and leak information by itself, but the people behind it! So who says you can trust those "seniors"? Who says you can trust the police or the Ministry of the Interior or the government? After all, everyone is one or several steps above the common citizen, a situation has arisen here in which the entire population in Israel is considered animals, a zoo! And the managers of this zoo are the police (zoo inspectors), the Ministry of the Interior and the government (the management of the zoo). God knows if they can be trusted at all. Acts of corruption and crime can be committed at any level and at the top. Who said that an employee of the Ministry of the Interior who is called a "senior" will not leak? Information for criminals, identity thieves and crime families to incriminate just a random citizen in a crime that is going to be committed with his knowledge?
Who said that the MK won't do something similar (have you forgotten that we have MKs who are in prison for crimes that will not shame criminals in the public itself?) Who do you think is stupid enough in the Israeli public to trust these bodies?
The ones who are right here in the whole story are the honorable lawyers, Yonathan Klinger is doing holy work, Avner Pinchcock as well, Dov Hanin and the other MKs who woke up from their hibernation as well, well done (D.A. Hanin is the only tzaddik in Sodom who voted in advance against the reservoir) . Don't let them work on you friends, we are nobody's suckers! At least let them do like in the UK, that there will be no prison law and the obligation to hand over the samples, even though we all know that in the beginning what is important to them is first of all to reach a situation where they have the basic database, in the beginning it is not mandatory, it is out of choice, but from that moment we still passed the point of no return and what Choice at the beginning will be mandatory at the end.
I call the herd to wake up.
Prepare a cell for me in a prison, certainly a prison for violent criminals and not a white-collar one!
The law must be opposed emphatically because there is no turning back from this act.
What is the penalty for revealing or trading information from the database?
Surely a light punishment and understanding from the judge...
Not willing to give more information than the state has about me now, after all, all the establishment does is just live... and not act against organized crime and violence in the streets.
Shetrit simply whistles at the State Comptroller openly! What was not clear?
The State Comptroller warned and gave examples in his report, Sheetrit literally whistles at him openly to everyone! Disrespectful and unethical on his part! And he also claims that he understands technology? What does he even understand about it? Does he know how databases work and how easily they are hacked?
And he dares to say that the team that worked on it worked on it for a year?!??? sleep???
Tell me, Honorable Minister, are you making fun of our intelligence? sleep?!? This is something that the British government has been seriously considering for over 10 years and even though they are the most extreme "big brother" country in the world, they still do not dare to establish such a reservoir!
Shame on you Honorable Minister, you are showing disdain, lack of appreciation, casting doubt on the entire nation and in particular on the State Comptroller himself! Why is there a state auditor for this country? For him to speak on the air and the MKs will mock him? It's disrespectful.
Shitrit's swan song
With indefatigable efforts Shitrit tries to make his mark in some field
Unfortunately for him, he got on the wrong wave and I really hope he fails
Simply a disgrace - while in the enlightened countries of the world the subject is re-examined with quite a lot of reservations, and in England the subject is subject to the choice of the citizen, here everything is the other way around
We will do it and we will hear it - you know yes, of course this is the people of Israel and even more so these are the people of Israel
First we do, then we check and check -
A dream, we already said it here
I was a computer expert, information security officer in the army
And I am very, very afraid of this law.
Those who think that the database will be well secured, then receive a correction: the freedom of information law will not apply to the new authority that will be established to protect the database. Meaning: there is no public criticism of the security of the information and there is room for security failures that do not exist in supervised authorities around the world. Also, when the information is leaked there will be no obligation to report it to the public. All of this is a section of the law that says the freedom of information law does not apply to the new authority.
Listen to the information security experts.
"Today, there is no western democratic country that has a database where biometric fingerprints of all the country's citizens or residents are stored." (The Information and Research Center of the Knesset, January 14.1.2009, XNUMX)
In all the discussions of the "Joint Committee for the Biometric Law" only one Knesset member voted: MK Shetrit, who signed a contract with HP worth NIS 270 million for the establishment of the database and the certificates during his tenure as Minister of the Interior.
"There is no necessity to establish a biometric information database, even if we go for smart identity cards. The leakage of the database would be an event with irreversible results and damage. It could lead to a situation in which, for a few shekels, any person could enter the database, pull out a fingerprint and stamp it wherever he wants, Or he could examine a fingerprint he finds and track different people." (Minister Michael Eitan, July 2009)
All the security experts who appeared before the committee opposed the creation of the database. The reservoir will leak and then everyone will miss the days of traditional crime before the age of digital crime.
Examples:
Everyone will be able to fake a fingerprint. In the best case, a court will stop treating them, and in the worst case, innocent people will be criminalized.
A girl used a glass in a restaurant? You can take a fingerprint, and from there her phone number and her address. Already today, the population register is circulating on the Internet, for those who don't know.
The database will contain the citizens' facial features, and not just fingerprints. Meaning: every criminal will be able to know where every person is every time he passes on the street (near a camera). Do you think there won't be many cameras? Wait a few years and see how cheap the millions of web cameras that people put up everywhere will be.
When entering a foreign country, it doesn't matter if you use a foreign passport, and they will be able to identify you as Israeli.
Don't believe this will happen? If someone told you in 1995 that in 5 years all citizens of the State of Israel will be walking around with a device in their pocket that the Shin Bet can track, would you believe it?
There is no awareness of the problem in Israel, and Israel will be the first country to fall into the trap and pass such a law, which other countries have examined and stopped.
Please send letters to the members of the Knesset this week, because there will be no going back after the second and third reading.
The problem is whether... I also think that in a reformed and normal country the law is good but...
There are people in this country especially some of those 120 who will use the reservoir as much as they like without any consideration for the little citizen.
It is not clear what the big problem is
And if something manages to break through
Then?
This law doesn't scare me either...
If the state will indeed protect the information they take from us and classify it in such a way that it will not be leaked, then for me it is an excellent law. (In a country like ours, security is important and it is important to understand that we do not live in Switzerland)
That way they will find many criminals, illegal residents and most importantly the country will be better protected from inside and outside from spies.
This law does not scare me at all.
sad
Too bad
Scary