Israel to halt sweeping COVID-19 cellphone surveillance next month

FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein attend the arrival of a DHL plane carrying a first batch of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel December 9, 2020. Abir Sultan/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will next month halt its cellphone tracking of coronavirus cases except for carriers who refuse epidemiological questioning or in the event of a surge in contagions, a government ministry said.

Used on and off since March in efforts to curb COVID-19, the Shin Bet counter-terrorism agency's surveillance technology checks confirmed carriers' locations against other cellphones nearby to determine with whom they came into contact.