Surveillance and the Fight Against COVID-19 in Israel and Around the World

In response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Israeli government has implemented new surveillance programs aimed at tracking the spread of the disease throughout Israel, and using collected data to enforce quarantines. While some of these techniques had previously been used by the Israeli military against Palestinians, the public introduction of such invasive and widespread domestic surveillance is raising global concerns regarding its future implications for privacy – in Israel and in democratic countries that may emulate Israeli policies. In parallel, and pre-dating the COVID-19 crisis, concern continues to grow about the role of Israeli companies in the development of new surveillance technologies – often based on tools developed by the Israeli military and tested on Palestinians in occupied territory — that in the hands of both governmental or private actors threaten privacy, political organizing, activism, and protest.