Israel to share data with Pfizer in exchange for COVID-19 vaccine
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer reached an agreement that will enable all Israel citizens aged over 16 to receive the vaccine by the end of March 2021. In return, Israel will share anonymised data about consequences of the inoculations, side effects, efficacy, and the amount of time it took to develop antibodies, as well as age, gender, pre-existing conditions, and other information. Data will also be shared with the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr Alon Kaufman, co-founder of privacy-enhanced technology firm, Duality Technologies, commented that while reports suggest that Israel is only sharing statistical data, there is understandable concern about the effects of such data sharing on citizens’ individual privacy.