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The plaintiff's main arguments
- At the relevant times of the prosecution, Shteif served as a criminal affairs correspondent for Army Radio. At the beginning of December 2018, someone contacted Steif and gave her mobile devices that were owned and used exclusively by Naveh. Steif hacked the devices illegally, with the help of a security expert. After the devices were hacked, Steif rummaged through the contents contained in them and delved deeply into Naveh's personal and private life. Steif was exposed to Naveh's most personal conversations with his children, friends and clients, and was also allowed to view his pictures. All this without permission and in violation of the law. The hacking of the devices and the perusal of their contents severely and irreversibly violated Naveh's privacy.
- After hacking the devices and reviewing the conversations and the pictures appearing in them, Steif transferred the copies of the information from the devices to defendants 2-5. Together, the defendants "dived" into the information discovered in the devices. In January 2019, a special broadcast of the program "What's Burning" presented by Barkai was broadcast on Army Radio. During the broadcast, the defendants revealed various pieces of information that they had learned from examining the contents of the devices, while mentioning Naveh's name. Transferring the information accumulated on other devices for reference and broadcasting it on the radio constitutes a criminal offense. Even after the broadcast of the program, the defendants continued to "leak" various materials accumulated on the devices.
The defendants possessed, and continue to hold, materials that were illegally collected by them from the devices. Steif even copied all the information in order to continue using it. Naveh's request to the defendants to return all the material copied from the devices to him was not answered.
- Hacking into Naveh's private devices constitutes a criminal offense accordingly To Section 4 of the Computers Law, 5755-1995 (hereinafter - The Computers Law) and in accordance with To Section 5 of the Protection of Privacy Law, 5741-1981 (hereinafter - The Protection of Privacy Law or The Law). The use of information obtained as a result of the hacking of the devices also constitutes a criminal offense accordingly Section 2(b) of the Wiretapping Law, 5739-1979 (hereinafter - The Wiretapping Law). In these circumstances, the defendants' actions constitute a tort of breach of statutory duties as aforesaid In section 63 of the Torts Ordinance [New Version] (hereinafter - The Torts Ordinance). and also uphold the foundations of the tort of negligence as aforesaid Sections 35-36 to the Torts Ordinance. The defendants' actions even amount to an infringement of Naveh's privacy in accordance with the Protection of Privacy Law. This is a fatal and precedent-setting injury caused by taking the devices, hacking them, scanning the information, processing it, preparing it for broadcast, exposure to correspondence, photos and recordings, publications and leaks.
- In addition, in May 2019, Shteif posted a split photo on her Facebook account: on the right is a picture of her and one of her acquaintances, and on the left is a link to an article from the "The Marker" website, which also featured Naveh's picture. Ms. Shteif wrote: "The one who distinguishes between the sacred and the profane. On the holy right, on the left, is the garbage worm. Patience. It's not for nothing that my silence is thunderous... a barrier to wisdom..." This publication, which damaged Naveh's good name, amounts to defamation accordingly To Section 1 of the Prohibition of Defamation Law, 5725-1965 (hereinafter - Prohibition of Defamation Law).
- The total non-pecuniary damages caused to Adv. Naveh is ILS 4,141,000, which includes damage to privacy, reputation, punitive damages and defamation. In terms of pecuniary damage, the defendants' actions harmed and will harm Adv. Naveh's income in the amount estimated at millions of shekels, and at least in the sum of ILS 5 million, for the next three years. His firm's revenues declined steeply from ILS 17 million in 2017-2018 to ILS 12.7 million in 2019, ILS 10.2 million in 2020, and to ILS 9.4 million in 2021.
For these reasons and in view of the severity of the events, Naveh petitioned to oblige the defendants to compensate him in the sum of ILS 7,141,000.