Written by: Haim Ravia, Dotan Hammer
The Israeli Ministry of the Interior (MoI), which oversees the country’s border control, has released a draft bill proposing an amendment to the biometric database law.
The proposed amendment would allow border control agents to request biometric identification documents upon entry to Israel and attempt biometric verification using the national biometric database. This measure would only be used when an individual cannot be reliably identified through standard procedures. The proposed amendment also outlines procedures for retaining biometric data collected at the border for use in criminal investigations, enforcement of travel restrictions, and verification via facial recognition.
Currently, the law permits border agents to access only low-resolution images for human-eye comparison. The proposed amendment raises concerns about the potential use of blurred images for biometric identification and the risks associated with storing such data in border control systems due to recent technological developments.
Notably, Israel’s border control authority recently deleted its database of facial images, following a settlement in a lawsuit over the authority’s privacy practices at border crossings (disclosure: the lawsuit was filed and litigated by Haim Ravia, Chair of the Cyber, Privacy, and Copyright Practice Group at Pearl Cohen).
Click here to read the full proposed amendment (in Hebrew).
