The Justice Ministry has decided to prohibit commercial companies and government bodies who have access to personal civilian data from "selling" this information to other sources.

The decision was based on the recommendation of a team examining legislation on information collection and privacy protection, headed by the government's legal advisor on legislative issues, Yehoshua Shaufman.

The team's recommendations will be implemented in coordination with the Legal Authority on Information and Privacy Protection.

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Databases containing sensitive and private information on Israeli citizens and residents have been breached recently, allowing the information to trickle into the hands of interested commercial groups and passed around.

According to a recent report, information from the Population Registry's databases has been published for public use on the Internet. The Justice Ministry suspects that the information was leaked from government parties, who are entitled by law to receive in full private details from the Population Registry ahead of elections. A security investigation into the matter is currently underway.

Sensitive civilian information is accessible to banks, hospitals, credit card companies, broadcast networks, various customer clubs and government sources - including the National Insurance Institute, police, the Israel Defense Forces, the Transportation Ministry, and the Tax Authority.

In its recommendations, the investigative team attempted to draw limits to prevent "information digging" by means of advanced technology.