Online Privacy in Israel

For those interested in reading and writing in the area of online privacy, Michael Birnhack and Niva Elkin-Koren recently posted an article on SSRN that details their study of compliance by Israeli websites with Israeli privacy laws.  The study is interesting because, while Israeli law is closer to the European Union privacy model than the United States sectoral approach to privacy, it also has some interesting features of its own – among them, a requirement that online databases that collect certain  information must be registered with a Database Registrar.  While the authors note that there is very little compliance with this requirement, it is an approach I am not familiar with from looking at privacy laws in other countries.  This is a really good comparative paper for those interested in contrasting legislative approaches to online privacy.  It also addresses the question that increasingly arises online, and goes back to early work by Lawrence Lessig – Is law ever going to be the answer to online regulation?  And is it less likely to be the answer as we move into the age of Web 2.0 technologies?