Rights groups petitioned Israel's top court on Monday to repeal new COVID-19 measures that authorize the country's domestic intelligence service, the Shin Bet, to use counter-terrorism phone tracking technology to contain the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

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Announcing the emergency measures on Saturday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the phone tracking would be used to locate carriers of the new and potentially more contagious variant in order to curb its transmission to others.

Israeli rights groups say the emergency measures violate previous Supreme Court rulings over such surveillance, used on-and-off by the Shin Bet since March 2020.

"Operation of the Secret Service to trace citizens violates the basic trust between the citizen and the government," the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, one of four groups who petitioned the court, said in a statement.

The Supreme Court gave the government until Tuesday to respond to the petition, ACRI said.

Briefing a parliamentary committee, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the head of public health at the Health Ministry, said on Sunday that the use of phone tracking would be "surgical" in nature, only to be utilized on confirmed or suspected carriers of the variant.

The surveillance technology matches virus carriers' locations against other mobile phones nearby to determine with whom they have come into contact. The Supreme Court this year limited the scope of its use after civil rights groups mounted challenges over privacy concerns.

Israel, which has banned almost all foreigners from entering the country over Omicron fears, has confirmed two cases of the new variant. Ten others are suspected of having contracted it.

Meanwhile, a public opinion poll conducted by the Public Security Ministry found that Israelis in the 45-65 age group were more willing than those in younger age groups to share their whereabouts and that ultra-Orthodox Israelis were less willing than Arabs, secular traditional Israelis.

The survey revealed that more than half of individuals required to self-isolate want to be tracked and are concerned about privacy violations. The poll consisted of 501 respondents currently in self-isolation.

According to the survey, 43% of those questioned those 24 years old and younger agreed to share their whereabouts; 46% of 25-34-year-olds agreed; 51% of 35-54-year-olds agreed; 60% of 55-64-year-olds agreed; 66% of those aged 65 and above agreed. The average percentage of consent was 52%.

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Israeli company Playermaker, a world leader in soccer performance tracking, announced on Thursday that its award-winning technology is the first foot-mounted wearable device accepted into FIFA's Innovation Program.

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The ground-breaking technology provides in-depth analysis and monitoring of key player performance indicators via foot-to-ball interactions. Acceptance into the program provides a future pathway for the technology to be integrated and accessible to all FIFA teams as part of the FIFA Quality Program for Electronic Performance Tracking Systems.

The device specifically addresses the challenge that the world soccer governing body has identified with performance technologies. Until now, the most common electronic tracking and performance system used has been the back-mounted GPS solution, which provides a solid baseline of measurement, but doesn't thoroughly capture the action of the feet.

The Israeli technology transforms any soccer shoe into a connected solution and has already been tested and proven by more than 150 of the top elite academies and teams globally. Playermaker enables athletes and their coaches, as well as aspiring amateurs to capture both physical and technical quantifiable insights and data when in use. At the end of each session with the device, the data is uploaded to the cloud for coaches to easily access. The integration of the technology provides a much-needed tool for professional soccer players and coaches to better understand player performance and inform decision-making with data to guide player development.

Guy Aharon, CEO and co-founder of Playermaker, said: "We are thrilled to be the first-ever foot-mounted wearable device to carry with pride the FIFA Innovation Program mark. This is a huge milestone both for Playermaker and for technology in professional sport, paving the way for connected foot-mounted wearable sensors to be the gold standard of player development technology around the world. We thank FIFA for its support and innovation in making this possible, it is fantastic to see this esteemed organization committing and investing in integrated technological advances."

Established in 2019, Playermaker is now the fastest-growing footwear performance platform. The company has offices in the US, UK, and Israel.

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The electronic surveillance is carried out via cellphone triangulation technology. The current extension is to last another three weeks.

Last month, the Knesset plenum, passed legislation to allow the Shin Bet to assist in the national effort to reduce to spread of the coronavirus, sparking debate about the possible infringement of privacy.

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