Israel continues toward biometric ID

Knesset Extends Biometric ID Trial Program (Arutz Sheva)

The law was passed in part to prevent identity theft and the loss, theft and destruction of the blue ID cards issued by the Interior Ministry, which had spiraled out of control in the decade prior to 2007. It was later revealed that more than half of those requesting new documents had a criminal background.

Israel: Interior Minister foresees mandatory biometric ID

Erdan wants advanced biometric ID card mandatory for all Israelis (Jerusalem Post)

All citizens will have to gradually move to biometric identification, Interior Minister Gilad Erdan said Monday, submitting a report on the system’s pilot run to the cabinet and Knesset.

“Smart biometric documentation that cannot be counterfeited, together with use of the biometric data will allow a full security and defense package for Israeli citizens’ identities and will balance our responsibility to ensure their security with our requirement to defend their privacy,” Erdan stated.

Obviously, his stance isn't universally popular, but read the whole thing. There are a lot of good bits of information there including this one: Israel is the OECD country with the most counterfeited passports.

Israel makes another run at biometric ID

Israel is having a go at a biometrically enabled ID document system. Participation is voluntary, for now. It's also worth noting that this isn't the first time biometrics have come up in a discussion of Israeli ID, but at least this time the biometrics part belongs there.

Sa'ar: No reason to panic over biometric database (Ynetnews)

After countless discussions, delays, objections, Israel launches database enabling smart identity cards. Interior minister says system meets 'highest standards of data protection preventing identity theft.' Labor's Yachimovich: Experiment on humans

Wow, that is some strong talk from Shelly Yachimovich. See also...

Yachimovich Opposes Biometric Database (Arutz Sheva)


Long-delayed biometric database pilot program gets underway (The Times of Israel)

Residents of the central Israeli town of Rishon Lezion were invited to trade in their current Israeli identity cards for a new “smart card” that will digitally encode not only their personal information, but also their fingerprints, photo, and facial profile (the contours and other details of the face). The government will study the results of the voluntary pilot program, searching out glitches and problems in the system before it becomes mandatory — according to plans, in two years.

Pilot begins for Israel's National Biometric Database program (+972)

The government claimed that the database is needed in order to prevent the forging of Israeli ID cards and passports. However, critics point to the fact that the government could issue “Smart IDs,” which themselves store biometric data, without keeping the personal records in one national database.

After long hiatus, Israel biometric ID pilot set to begin

Israel's biometric database to begin operating in two weeks (Haaretz)

Israel's pilot biometric database will begin operations in two weeks, Deputy Interior Minister Fania Kirshenbaum announced Monday.

The database was supposed to have started working in November 2011, but its commencement was delayed due to longer-than-expected legislative proceedings, an appeal to the High Court of Justice by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (which was turned down) and a labor dispute between the Population and Immigration Authority and the Finance Ministry. This dispute was resolved two weeks ago, removing the last obstacle for implementation of the project.

Israel: Interior ministry wants tourists' biometrics

Israel to create tourist biometric database? (Ynetnews) According to Interior Ministry proposal, visitors refusing to provide fingerprints will be banned entry.

Pretty soon everyone will be doing this; Ghana already does something similar at the Accra airport. I can't see why Israel would issue tourists an ID card though . On the one hand, isn't that what a passport is for? On the other, if they're collecting biometrics why not use them?

Israel High Court of Justice on Biometric Database Pilot

Hight Court: Biometric database should be changed (Jerusalem Post)

The petitioners said the ministry should examine whether a central database was in fact needed and whether there were other options that could prevent data leaks or information theft.

Though the court rejected the petition as premature because the pilot has not yet run, Justices Miriam Naor, Hanan Melcer and Isaac Amit also accepted the petitioners’ arguments that the state must rework its planned pilot of the program to evaluate whether it is necessary to store the population’s biometric data in a single, centralized database.

The Interior Ministry has been planning for years to replace existing ID cards with ones containing biometric data, and in 2009, the Knesset approved the biometric data law that allowed the initiative to move forward.

Head of the Israel Biometric Database: It is Safe

“The attempt to link the credit card information leakage from shopping and coupon websites with a low and unsupervised security level to the biometric database is, at best, lack of knowledge of reality and facts,” Kamni said, adding that the biometric database is the only database that can ensure Israelis peace of mind and confidence that their identity will not be stolen.

Israel Data Breach: What You Talkin' 'bout, Fast Company?

The theft of the Israeli Welfare Ministry database is being used by opponents of biometric population registers to bring attention to the potential dangers of centralized Identity Management data repositories.

This is entirely appropriate and a good thing.

Opponents of the use of biometric technologies are entitled to their point of view and entitled (even obligated) to argue for their vision of the proper use of the technology. Only by forthright and truthful dialogue can democratic societies reach consensus on matters of great importance to the fundamental rights of the individual, among which is the right to privacy.

Unfortunately, a forthright and truthful dialogue on this subject is not to be had by the readers of Fast Company in The Dark Side Of Biometrics: 9 Million Israelis' Hacked Info Hits The Web

Read carefully, the article asserts (twice!) that biometric information was stolen, though it offers no support for the assertion.

According to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva World News, the stolen biometric database was passed around by six separate suspects, who made copies of the records in exchange for cash.

Identity theft and petty Internet crimes being what they are, the stolen biometric information quickly made its way online. One of the secondary suspects uploaded the whole of Israel's biometric records database to the Internet under the name “Agron 2006.” A quick Google search reveals numerous torrents and uploaded copies of the database easily available for download. [bold emphasis mine, links in the original]

The story behind each link provided actually undermines the assertion made in the text of the link itself.

Click the Yeshiva World News link, the one that says "stolen biometric database", and you find absolutely no mention of an actual stolen biometric database. You will find, however, that...

The opponents to such a national database are using this latest incident to warn that if a biometric database was ever broken, the results would be far more catastrophic... In actuality, Israel is lagging behind.

There's plenty of mention of outdated identity documents, though.

Click the link that says "uploaded the whole of Israel's biometric records database" and you'll be directed to an article in which the word "biometric" does not appear at all, but you will find that...

The information included Israeli citizens' names, identification numbers, addresses, birthdates and other important dates as well as relationships between various citizens. 

This is extremely sloppy reporting at best. Whatever else it is, it is certainly counterproductive to any meaningful debate about the proper use of biometric identity management technologies.

What's going on here?

Israel: Biometric ID database to be launched in November

Pilot project will test database (Jerusalem Post)

Knesset Science and Technology Committee chairman MK Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) and MK Avraham Michaeli (Shas) both voted in favor of the database at the end of a long discussion in which rights groups opposed the policy on privacy grounds.

Reading this article and the one that provided the inspiration for the post linked below, put me in mind of this quote from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his recent address to the U.S. Congress:

You think you have contentious debates here in Congress? Come visit the Knesset for one day, be my guest.

See also, Privacy and Security in Israel.

Privacy and Security in Israel

The debate about the future of Israel's nationwide ID management system is really heating up. The future system will include biometrics. The article deals with how the pilot system is to be organized and distributed and how the information is to be stored.

I've really undersold the article, here. There are some fireworks in there (the adverbs especially) as well as links to other news items about the topic.

How vulnerable will Israel's future biometric database be? (ynet News)

Israel to issue 'world's most secure passport'

Biometric passports will include computer chip with photo, finger prints (ynet)

After years of delays Israel is finally getting ready to embark on a new age of biometric identification. In the coming months, Israeli citizens will be asked to replace their old passports and identity cards with new sophisticated means of identification.

Perhaps because Israel's other security methods are so effective, Israel is actually somewhat late to the biometric passport party.