The State Attorney, Edna Arbel, recently laid down policy that email that is not in the possession of an Internet service provider but is likely to pass through its computers in the future, can only be seized, kept and copied after an appropriate order has been obtained by virtue of the Secret Monitoring Law, 5739-1979. Arbel thereby accepted the position of the ISP, Netvision Ltd, in legal proceedings conducted by it against the State, which was trying to get hold of email by virtue of a routine search order issued by the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court. Shortly afterwards the Tel Aviv District Court held that ISPs cannot be made to perform continuing tasks in the service of Israel’s law enforcement agencies.
