When is it obligatory to obtain a database management license?
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When is it obligatory to obtain a database management license?

September 17, 2014
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Many businesses have an internal database of customers and prospects. This database may contain only names and contact information, but in many cases it contains private information, from the customer's bank account information to preferences and other "intelligence" information that infringes the privacy of the customer. Is a business holding such a repository required to obtain a state license? Are some businesses allowed to exchange such confidential information?
The right to privacy is one of the most important human rights in Israel, certainly with the enactment of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, which states, inter alia, that the state is under an obligation to realize the right and privacy. However, as the technological development of the past few years has become increasingly important, private information is of great economic value, so that commercial companies have a clear interest in collecting and storing it in databases.
By their very nature, databases can pose a danger to their privacy, in which many pieces of sensitive information are preserved, and therefore special mechanisms must be established to protect them. Due to the potential harm to the fact that sensitive information is stored on a database, the legislator has established the obligation to register a database in the registry of the Registrar of Databases and other obligations, such as responsibility for information security, confidentiality, and definition of the purposes for which the information is used. The obligation to register and manage a database according to law applies to every person who holds information on individuals exceeding 10,000 persons, information that includes sensitive details about a person's personality / state of health / financial condition, etc.
Although there is a legal obligation to register databases with the Registrar of Databases, it is now possible to find in the Register of Databases that only a negligible percentage of the total number of databases in Israel must register the actual registration. The reason for this lies in the fact that the registration of a database is a complex bureaucratic process, which involves prolonged negotiations with the state authorities responsible for this registration, which requires the submission of various applications based on documents whose purpose is to prove compliance with basic requirements of securing information stored in the database. In the framework of submitting the application to register the database, it is necessary to reveal the identity of the owner of the database, its objectives and the type of information included in the database.
Although the registration of a database that requires registration is a criminal offense with a long prison sentence, there is an absurd result in which hundreds of private bodies, associations and even public bodies that prefer to avoid this bureaucratic process have not registered their database and thus commit criminal offenses on a daily basis. The state today has not yet begun massive enforcement of the law, but there is no knowing when it will begin.
Therefore, prior to the opening of the State and the Information and Technology Authority, which is responsible for implementing the registration of the database in an act of enforcement against violators of the law in Israel and filing indictments against them, it is recommended to do everything necessary to submit an application to register your database and to consult with an expert lawyer in this field And which may facilitate the submission of the request and expedite its approval, so that the database can be continued without the risk involved in not registering it.