By Esther Amao
Copyright tribuneonlineng
Microsoft has terminated specific cloud services provided to the Israeli Ministry of Defense after an internal investigation linked its technology to mass surveillance of Palestinians.
The company’s president, Brad Smith, announced in a statement on Microsoft’s blog that the tech giant had “ceased and disabled a set of services” used by Israel’s military intelligence unit, 8200.
The move followed a joint investigation by The Guardian and Israeli publication +972 Magazine, which revealed that Unit 8200 relied on Microsoft Azure to store millions of phone calls made by Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
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Microsoft, which began a review of the claims on August 15, said it does not provide technology “to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians” in any country.
The review, which examined financial and business records, confirmed that Israel had consumed Azure storage capacity in the Netherlands and used Microsoft’s AI services.
As a result, Microsoft has cut off access to the affected cloud storage and AI technologies.
However, an Israeli security official maintained that the decision does not affect the “operational capabilities of the IDF.”
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