Dr. Rachel Aridor-Hershkovitz

Senior Researcher, Democracy in the Information Age Program

rachela@idi.org.il

She holds a Master’s degree in Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law from the NYU School of Law, and a PhD from the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa. Her doctoral dissertation examined the most suitable regulatory tools for cybersecurity protection, based on a comparison of regulations in the United States and England, and an in-depth study of the need for public-private sector cooperation and how to achieve it.

At the Israel Democracy Institute, Dr. Aridor-Hershkovitz conducts research in law and technology, focusing on the right to privacy, cybersecurity protection, and the challenges of phygital reality. Her research covers topics such as making government information accessible, the dangers of SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) and potential regulatory solutions, updating the Israeli Privacy Protection Law, mapping players in the cyber arena, addressing cybersecurity challenges, and providing legal responses to privacy violations from surveillance malware and employee monitoring technologies.

She also played an active role in drafting a proposal for a new privacy law for Israel, based on discussions with an expert team from academia, the business sector, and civil society, initiated and managed by the institute. Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was involved in opposing the use of Shin Bet’s contact tracing for quarantine enforcement, highlighting Israel’s unique stance on the issue compared to other Western democracies.

Research Areas: Information and technology policy, the right to privacy in the digital age, cybersecurity regulation, secondary use of medical data, regulation of social networks, and the challenges posed by the use of artificial intelligence.

Photo: Oded Antman