After facing employee protests, Microsoft says it’s ‚ceased and disabled‘ a set of services that Israel’s Ministry of Defense was reportedly using to surveil Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Microsoft is blocking Israel’s Ministry of Defense from accessing some company services over their reported use to monitor Palestinian phone calls in Gaza and the West Bank.
Microsoft has “ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense,” the company’s President Brad Smith announced on Thursday, a month after it kicked off a formal review about the surveillance concerns.
The software giant is the pulling plug after The Guardian reported that Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, has been using Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and its vast storage capacity to support a powerful surveillance tool. The resulting system can collect and store millions of mobile phone calls made each day from local Palestinians.
“According to three Unit 8200 sources, the cloud-based storage platform has facilitated the preparation of deadly airstrikes and has shaped military operations in Gaza and the West Bank,” The Guardian added.
