Israel Halts Controversial Tech to Track Omicron Variant

Israel said today that it was halting the use of a controversial phone tracking technology to trace possible cases of the new coronavirus variant, days after it was authorized as an emergency measure, the AP reports.

Earlier this week, the government announced a package of emergency measures to contain the new variant, including travel restrictions and authorizing the country’s internal security agency to use the phone monitoring technology for contact tracing people infected by the omicron variant.

The tracking was authorized under emergency regulations and would have required parliamentary legislation in order to continue the practice.

But today, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said the “cellular monitoring” would expire at midnight and not be extended.

{Matzav.com Israel}