Should We Have a “General Right to Privacy” In Israel?

In recent years there has been a growing concern about privacy in many countries. Consequently demands are being made that the law should afford privacy a more adequate protection. This new concern about privacy may seem surprising when we recall that people have always gossipped, that individuals have always sought information about others for various purposes, and that governments have always had an interest in knowing as much as they could about their citizens. The intensity of these recent demands for more legal protection suggests that conditions have changed, and that this change has created new threats for privacy. To deal effectively with these new threats we must first identify and understand them. It appears that a combination of various factors, all of which are somehow related to technological developments, is responsible for arousing this interest in privacy. First is the development of the mass-media, which removed the traditional limitations on dissemination of information, and created an artifical demand for such information. Second is the development of electronic devices enabling invasions of privacy which were hitherto impossible. Third is the development and use of computerised systems for the storage and compilation of information. The threats to privacy are evident. Information about us can be retrieved from the files, or sought by detectives or journalists aided by sophisticated devices against which there is virtually no protection. This information may be used against us or disseminated in the mass-media and thus become “public knowledge”. Movements and conversations may be recorded.