Amitai Ziv reports:
When it comes to seeking personal information on Israelis’ cellphones, the police have become quick to click OK on requests, figures obtained by TheMarker show.
The figures show a steady rise in the number of requests for information on users’ home addresses and credit card details, the data they use and even where they were at a particular time since June 2008, when the “Big Brother law” giving the Israel Police wider powers went into effect.
In 2016, the last year for which there are figures, the number of requests for information obtained through a court order reached 24,801, an increase of 7.8% from 2015. Since 2011, the number has risen 41%.
The growth, however, has been even faster for fast-track requests that don’t require court approval: They jumped nearly 21% in 2016, to 9,517 and since 2011 have risen 174%, according to the figures obtained by TheMarker through a freedom of information request filed through the Ask Data website.
Read more on Haaretz.
So if you don’t require oversight, law enforcement will take advantage of that and seek more data than they might otherwise request or be granted access to? Is there a lesson to be learned here, perhaps?