Israeli Coalition Abandons Plan to Legalize Use of Elector App for Voter Data Collection

The Israeli governing coalition has decided not to pursue legislation for the so-called "Solberg Bypass Law," which would have permitted political parties to use the Elector app to collect information on their supporters ahead of elections. This development was reported on Monday morning by the Kan News program "This Morning" on Reshet Bet radio. The move follows a decision by the Central Elections Committee to prohibit polling station observers from reporting to parties on who has voted.

In response, the coalition approached opposition parties with a proposal to cooperate on passing a law that would override this restriction. However, none of the opposition parties agreed to support the initiative. After a legal review, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's circle concluded that passing such legislation without broad consensus during the election period would likely be legally invalid, leading to the decision to abandon the effort.

The Elector app has a controversial history. In February 2020, a major security breach exposed personal details, including names, addresses, ID numbers, and phone numbers, of approximately 6.5 million Israeli citizens after the Likud party uploaded the voter registry for the 23rd Knesset elections to the app. The company behind Elector was required to immediately fix the severe security flaws and was fined. It was also determined that Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu failed to implement adequate oversight and control measures over Elector, which provided them with technological services.

The security breach has prompted calls for further investigation, with Minister of Communications Yoaz Hendel considering forming a committee to examine the voter registry leak.