The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has declared that Israel offers an adequate level of data protection. In its Opinion released last week, the Working Party stated that it “believes that Israel guarantees an adequate level of protection according to … Article 25 of [the Data Protection] Directive." The Working Party encouraged Israeli authorities to pursue legislative amendments to the Privacy Protection Act, 1981, as envisaged by the report of the “Schoffman Committee”.
In obtaining an adequacy opinion from the Working Party, Israel has joined a select group of countries, including Switzerland, Canada, Argentina and the English Channel Islands. The opinion emphasizes the role and effectiveness of Israel’s new data protection regulator, the Israeli Law Information and Technology Authority (ILITA). Headed by Adv. Yoram Hacohen, ILITA is pursuing legislative reforms and has implemented a proactive audit and enforcement policy, including the recent imposition of an administrative fine in an amount of 177,000 NIS ($50,000) for violation of the law.
“We are are honored by the Working Party opinion and happy to join this exclusive club”, said Adv. Hacohen. “We have always felt that our regime is adequate; yet we intend to continue reforming our laws to increase accountability and enforcement of data protection regulation. We will work with companies and government agencies to devise reasonable compliance plans, while at the same time vigorously pursue privacy offenders.”
In addition to the adequacy opinion, the data protection regulators decided in their last meeting in Madrid to accept ILITA’s proposal to host the 32nd annual conference of privacy and data protection commissioners. The conference, which will be held in Jerusalem on 27-29 October 2010, will emphasize themes representing Israel’s culture and economy: the intergenerational shift in privacy law and privacy technologies.