Microsoft disables cloud, AI services to Israel military after review found Gaza surveillance | Latest Tech News
Microsoft on Thursday said it disabled a set of cloud and AI services used by a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense after an inner review found preliminary evidence supporting media studies of a surveillance system in Gaza and the West Bank.
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, said the company opened the review after an article by the Guardian alleged exercise by a unit of the Israel Defense Forces.
A joint investigation printed in early August by the Guardian, Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call reported that an Israeli military surveillance company used Microsoft’s Azure to store large volumes of cell phone call recordings from Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Demonstrators march in help of Palestinians in Gaza close to the Microsoft Build convention last 12 months. REUTERS
The Guardian investigation said Israel relied on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians.
While the review is ongoing, Microsoft said it found evidence supporting components of the Guardian’s reporting, including particulars on IMOD’s consumption of Azure storage capability in the Netherlands and the use of AI services.
“We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians,” Smith said in a Microsoft weblog.
Microsoft has informed the Israeli protection ministry of its “decision to cease and disable specified IMOD subscriptions and their services, including their use of specific cloud storage and AI services and technologies.”
“We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said. AFP via Getty Images
The motion doesn’t affect Microsoft’s cybersecurity services to Israel and other international locations in the Middle East, Smith said.
In late August, Microsoft fired 4 staff who took half in protests on company premises over its ties to Israel as the conflict in Gaza continues, including two who joined a sit-in at the workplace of the company’s president.
Microsoft said the terminations adopted severe breaches of company insurance policies and the on-site demonstrations had “created significant safety concerns.”
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