Image
© Tomer AppelbaumA demonstration of the biometric database's workings at the system's unveiling ceremony. Rishon Letzion, June 8, 2013.
Security agencies have opposed the project from the start, fearing data leaks.

The Shin Bet security service and the Mossad espionage agency have banned their employees from replacing their Israeli ID cards and passports with new "smart" documents, which requires joining the pilot trial of the state's new biometric database. Officers in sensitive units of the Israel Defense Forces have also been instructed not to join.

The instructions were issued shortly after the pilot began last year, Haaretz has learned, but not made public until now.

The security agencies fear potential damage to their operations in the event of leaks of classified information from the pilot database.

The database, which among other things is meant to prevent any individual from using more than one identity, could even restrict the activities of agents. The Mossad has opposed the establishment of the database since it was first proposed, in 2010, and the Shin Bet did not support it either.

"I understand very well what their fear is, it's justified," said Doron Ofek, an information security expert who was one of the petitioners who asked the High Court of Justice to stop the implementation of the database. Leaks could damage Mossad operations for years to come, and their operatives could be identified all over the world, he said. Ofek explained that the Interior Ministry built the new biometric database on top of its old Aviv system for the Population Registry, which has already leaked onto the Internet.

"We are the only country in the world that faces having its central population database found outside [on the Internet]. It creates very acute problems. The State of Israel has not learned and is not learning from the depressing experience we have on the matter and the databases here will continue to leak. That is why we must cancel the biometric database and stop the pilot," Ofek said.

The voluntary pilot began in July. It is expected to continue for two years, after which the Knesset will vote whether to continue the project - and whether to make it mandatory for all citizens. Under the trial, Israelis who submit biometric data - fingerprints and a digital high-resolution photograph that reads facial contours, at Interior Ministry offices across the country - receive a new, "smart" ID containing their biometric profile. The ministry continues to issue the regular IDs to those who don't want to join the pilot program. The program's proponents claim the new IDs and the database will facilitate identification and make identity theft more difficult.

Last month, the Interior Ministry's Population and Immigration Authority said around 192,000 Israelis joined the pilot in the first six months. The agency also said that around half of Israelis who received new ID cards in the second half of 2013 chose to receive the "smart" cards. But 27 percent of the new IDs have not been collected by their owners.

In the video: an ad issed by the Population and Immigration Authority seeking to allay concerns regarding the database (in Hebrew).