Like mushrooms after the rain, new technologies are constantly being adopted by the police to monitor citizens. About a year ago, we discovered that the Israel Police was monitoring all drivers in Israel using the “Hawk Eye” surveillance system. Later, it emerged that the police was seeking to formalize the use of face-recognition technologies. Now we learn that the police has been using the Pegasus spyware developed by the NSO company for several years.

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The sweeping collection of information about citizens and the hacking of citizens’ phones are practices typical of oppressive regimes that routinely violate human rights. Despite this, the Israeli government has still not prohibited the use of the Pegasus spyware and the police continues to collect information using the “Hawk Eye” surveillance system without any legislative foundation or regulation. Worse still, the government is planning to introduce a “Surveillance Law” that will approve the use of diverse camera surveillance systems, allow the police to use these tools virtually without restriction, and even permit the sharing of the information with other bodies.

If we don’t establish clear limits, we will end up with a police state instead of a state with a police. Join ACRI in demanding: No to secret surveillance! No to the adoption of mass spying technologies! No to the Surveillance Law!