Micrsoft has announced it disabled a set of its services to an Israel Ministry of Defense unit after an August article in The Guardian alleged the Israel Defense Forces were using Microsoft products to store surveillance of Palestinians, Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft said in a note with employees Thursday.
The article revealed a unit of the Israel Defense Forces was using Azure to store "data files of phone calls obtained through broad or mass surveillance of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank."
Microsoft said while it has not accessed the Israeli government's data in its review, it has found "evidence that supports elements of The Guardian’s reporting."
"We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians. We have applied this principle in every country around the world, and we have insisted on it repeatedly for more than two decades. This is why we explained publicly on August 15 that Microsoft’s standard terms of service prohibit the use of our technology for mass surveillance of civilians," Smith said.
Microsoft said its review was based in part on information the Guardian collected from outside of Microsoft that the company "could not access in light of [its] customer privacy commitments."
"We therefore have informed IMOD of Microsoft’s decision to cease and disable specified IMOD subscriptions and their services, including their use of specific cloud storage and AI services and technologies. We have reviewed this decision with IMOD and the steps we are taking to ensure compliance with our terms of service, focused on ensuring our services are not used for mass surveillance of civilians," Smith said.