Israel to use anti-terror tech to counter coronavirus

Israel is planning to use the technology that it uses for tracking terrorists to track people who have been in contact with coronavirus.

Israel has also shut down malls, hotels, restaurants and theaters to contain coronavirus outbreak. (AP)

Coronavirus outbreak has not only disrupted the pace of life in general but it has also led to governments shutting down their economies temporarily in order to contain the spread of the virus. In addition to that governments are also other technological measures to track people who may have come in contact with the virus. Now, Israeli government has announced that it will use terrorist tracking technology for containing coronavirus outbreak within its borders.

As per reports, the country is planning to use the aforementioned technology to track people who may have come in contact with people carrying the novel virus. "We will very soon begin using technology...digital means that we have been using in order to fight terrorism," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, as reported by Reuters.

Israel's security agency, Shin Bet, confirmed that it was indeed examining the use of its technological arsenal to fight coronavirus.

However, Israel's newly announced measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak within its borders has raised concerns among the privacy advocates who believe that use of such technology would breach users' privacy and that the government could use it to track quarantine breaches and places where the infected users had been in the recent past.

The agency later clarified that it was not planning to use technology for tracking people who violate isolation guidelines. "There is no intention of using said technologies for enforcement or tracking in the context of isolation guidelines," the agency said.