Israeli Data Protection Law: Constitutional, Statutory and Regulatory Reform

Abstract

Israeli data protection law is in flux. The elevation of the right of privacy to constitutional status has moved the Israeli Supreme Court to extend privacy and data protection beyond the scope of the Privacy Protection Act of 1981 ("PPA"). The PPA too is changing: driven by technological developments and the will to harmonize Israeli law with European standards, a government committee has recently proposed a wholesale reform of the statute's data protection chapter. To increase compliance and enforcement levels, Israel has established a new data protection authority - the Law and Information Technologies Authority - to replace the former Database Registrar. I review in this article the spate of recent changes in Israeli data protection law and comment on persisting discrepancies between Israeli and European data protection.

Keywords: privacy, data protection, directive 95/46/ec, Israel, technology

JEL Classification: K19, K20