The announcement is already raising concerns. Privacy expert Avner Pinchuk warned that this could include real-time phone tracking to alert authorities of quarantine violations, or tracing metadata to determine a COVID-19 patient’s travels and contacts. Shin Bet responded by saying it wouldn’t use its tech “in the context of isolation guidelines,” but that may not be reassuring if you object to constant monitoring in the first place.

Numerous countries have locked down large parts of their infrastructure, including Israel — it just ordered shutdowns for hotels, shopping malls, restaurants and theaters. The use of surveillance tech is relatively novel, though, and this might prompt other countries to follow suit if the law allows. If that happens, surveillance tech may be all too common — at least while the outbreak is still raging.

Researchers had also found an Elector security hole in September 2019, and there were other flaws on top of that (such as one that allowed modifying Likud’s vote count). However, Likud appears to have disregarded those concerns and simply uploaded the voter database.

The vulnerability was closed roughly a day after it came to light, and those involved have claimed they’ve “enhanced” security to prevent a repeat problem. Likud also tried to shift the blame by arguing that Elector was an “external” developer that served multiple parties. The country’s Privacy Protection Authority said it was looking into the Elector incident.

Whoever was ultimately responsible, the exposure could have had dire consequences. The database could have been used for identity theft, spying and even voter intimidation. Israel is still grappling with indecisive results from its September election, and the last thing it would want is a major data breach skewing the outcome of the follow-up election this March.