Today (30.7.2020), we appealed to the Acting Commissioner of Police requesting to stop utilizing the tracking software “Hawk Eye.” This software tracks the movement of vehicles and drivers in broad areas throughout the country via photographing, identifying, and documenting license plates. Using this software, it is possible to recreate the exact location and movement of hundreds of thousands of drivers, who are not suspected of any crime. The options offered by this police “tool” are continuously growing as the database improves and expands and is crossed with other databases available to the police.
The “Hawk Eye” software was introduced into use without notification to the public, without a prior public parliamentary discussion, and without its use being overseen by a law that would protect the right to privacy. A detailed request to release information on the software, which we submitted under the Freedom of Information Law, was rejected by the police.
In our appeal, Attorneys Anne Suciu and Avner Pinchuk wrote: “Citizens in a democratic country are not supposed to wake up one morning to find out they are systematically tracked, as is being done via the “Hawk Eye” software [...] the veil of secrecy around “Hawk Eye” and its usage by the police is outrageous due to the constitutional violations it necessitates, and excessive in comparison to what is normally accepted around the world in terms of similar software.” We demand that the police stop using the software immediately and erase the database, or at the very least suspend its use until the issue is discussed in court.