Microsoft Cuts Off Israeli Military Unit From Cloud Services Over Mass Surveillance Microsoft has terminated a key Israeli military unit’s access to its data centers, effectively halting a massive surveillance operation that was targeting Palestinian civilians. The company stated the country’s intelligence agency violated its terms of service. The surveillance system in question was collecting millions of phone calls made by Palestinian civilians every single day across Gaza and the West Bank. This enormous collection of data was being stored using Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. The company has now informed Israel’s spy agency that this use of its technology is no longer permitted. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice-chair and president, notified employees of the decision via email. He stated the company had ceased and disabled a set of services for a unit within the Israel ministry of defense. This action included cutting off access to cloud storage and certain artificial intelligence services. Smith was clear about the company’s policy, writing that they do not provide technology to facilitate the mass surveillance of civilians. He emphasized that this is a principle applied globally and one the company has insisted on for over twenty years. This move follows an external investigation Microsoft launched to review how the spy agency was using its Azure platform. The decision also comes amid growing pressure from both Microsoft employees and its investors, who have been urging the company to scrutinize its ties with the Israeli military in relation to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Reports indicate this surveillance program started back in 2021. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella allegedly gave his personal approval for the data storage after a meeting with a commander from Israel’s elite Unit 8200, a military surveillance corps. Under this arrangement, Nadella reportedly granted Israel a customized and segregated section within the Azure platform specifically for storing the intercepted phone calls. This was done without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinians being surveilled. While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is long-standing, this particular digital surveillance platform was built a full two years before the latest major escalation of violence that began on October 7, 2023. The reported goal during the project’s development was to record a staggering one million calls every hour. Leaked internal documents from Microsoft suggested the vast majority of this surveillance data was housed in the company’s Azure data centers located in the Netherlands. However, Israel is believed to have moved the data after Microsoft began its initial probe. There are reports that Unit 8200 planned to transfer the entire data trove to the Amazon Web Services cloud platform. It is currently unknown if Amazon has agreed to accept this massive collection of personal data.
