Microsoft Launches Urgent Review into Alleged Use of Azure Cloud for Palestinian Surveillance

Microsoft launches formal review into alleged use of its Azure cloud in Palestinian surveillance

Microsoft, under continued pressure over the use of its technology by the Israeli military, said Friday that it's launching a formal review into allegations that its cloud services were used as part of the mass surveillance of Palestinians. The move follows the Aug. 6 reports in The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call, citing sources who said the Israeli Defense Forces stored data from widespread phone monitoring of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank on Microsoft Azure servers. The company said its terms of service would prohibit this type of usage. When the story was initially published, the company said its work with an Israeli intelligence unit was for cybersecurity purposes, and that it was not aware of any civilian surveillance. "Microsoft appreciates that The Guardian's recent report raises additional and precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review," the company said in a new update to a post from May about an earlier review about the use of its technology by the Israeli military. For the new review, Microsoft said it has engaged the law firm Covington & Burling LLP, with technical assistance from an unnamed independent consulting firm. The company promised to publicly release the findings once the process is complete. The company said the effort will expand on the earlier review, which found no violations of its terms of service by the Israeli military. In that review, Microsoft acknowledged it had limited visibility into how its software is used on private or on-premises systems. The announcement comes amid ongoing protests from a group called No Azure for Apartheid, consisting of current and former Microsoft employees and others who are calling for the company to end its AI and cloud contracts with the Israeli military. Members of the group have staged repeated demonstrations at Microsoft events, arguing that the company's technology is enabling human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Microsoft Probing Whether Israel Used Its Cloud to Build Palestinian Surveillance System

For the past two years, Microsoft has been dogged by accusationsâ€"both within and outside the companyâ€"that its technology is aiding the Israeli war effort. Microsoft's own employees have protested the firm's contracts with Israel, and protesters have disrupted the company's various talks and conferences. Even the company's 50th anniversary was ruined by shouts from one of its own employees, who reportedly yelled “Shame on you†while calling the company's head of AI a "war profiteer" who was "using AI for genocide." Now, the company claims it's launched an “urgent†probe into whether its cloud business is being used by Israel to conduct a massive surveillance operation in Gaza. The company's announcement comes on the heels of a report published by The Guardian, which claims that Unit 8200, Israel's shadowy intelligence agency, had been using Microsoft's Azure cloud servers. The report claimed that, as part of a deal with Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, the spy unit had been granted access to a "customised and segregated area within Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform." The siloed cloud setup was ultimately used to build a "sweeping and intrusive system" designed to collect and store "recordings of millions of mobile phone calls made each day by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank," the report claimed. On Friday, Microsoft told The Guardian:  “Microsoft appreciates that the Guardian’s recent report raises additional and precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review.†The review of Microsoft's dealings with Israel will be overseen by attorneys at the law firm Covington & Burling, the outlet wrote. Gizmodo reached out to Microsoft for more information. In a statement previously shared with The Guardian, the company said that, if Israel is “using Azure for the storage of data files of phone calls obtained through broad or mass surveillance of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank,†it would represent a violation of its terms of service. This is the second legal probe Microsoft has opened into its relationship with the Israeli government. The prior probe took place earlier this year, after its employees' protests. In May, Microsoft released a report in which it claimed to have found "no evidence to date that Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies have been used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza.†Other big tech firmsâ€"most notably Amazon and Googleâ€"have also been accused of complicity in Israel's military efforts. In July, a U.N. group released a report that claimed that Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon grant Israel virtually government-wide access to their cloud and artificial intelligence technologies, enhancing data processing, decision-making, and surveillance and analysis capacities."