Israel halts controversial tech to track omicron variant
India TodayIsrael said Thursday it was halting the use of a controversial phone tracking technology to trace possible cases of the new coronavirus variant. Earlier this week, the government approved travel restrictions and authorised the country's internal security agency to use the phone monitoring technology for contact tracing people infected by the omicron variant in Israel. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office said in a statement that emergency measures authorising “cellular monitoring" of people who are infected by omicron, and those who might have been in contact with those cases, would expire at midnight. Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said on Twitter that “from the beginning I noted that use of this tool would be limited and brief — for a few days, in order to get urgent information to halt infection with the new, unknown variant.” He said that “alongside protecting health, we must protect privacy and human rights, even in a time of emergency."
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