LONDON: Microsoft has opened an external investigation into allegations that a top Israeli military intelligence unit used its cloud technology to carry out mass surveillance of Palestinians.
The probe follows a joint report by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call.
According to the report, Israel’s Unit 8200 spy agency, the rough equivalent of the US National Security Agency, used Microsoft’s Azure cloud service to store a vast archive of phone calls intercepted and recorded from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
The joint media report also revealed extensive ties between Microsoft’s Israel office and the spy unit — a finding that prompted alarm among the tech giant’s US executives who feared that Israel-based employees might have concealed information about the nature of their work with Unit 8200.
Microsoft’s Israel office, as part of its work with the unit, created a custom, segregated suite within the Azure platform in order to store the archive of intercepted phone calls.
Unit 8200 chiefs aimed to use the surveillance project to record “millions of calls per hour” across the Palestinian territories.
In a statement, Microsoft said “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” would be prohibited under its terms of service.
The tech giant appointed lawyers from US firm Covington & Burling to oversee the inquiry.
It is the second external probe initiated by Microsoft in relation to its ties with the Israeli military.
The first, conducted earlier this year, found “no evidence to date” that the Israel Defense Forces had broken Microsoft’s terms of service or used the Azure cloud service “to target or harm people” in Gaza.
However, the latest investigation will expand on the previous one, with Microsoft agreeing “that The Guardian’s recent report raises additional and precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review.”
Pressure is also mounting within Microsoft through an employee-led campaign group, No Azure for Apartheid.
The group, which is accusing the tech giant of “complicity in genocide and apartheid,” has called for Microsoft to cut all ties with the Israeli military.
Sources within Microsoft told The Guardian that the company’s leadership was scrambling to assess Azure data.
They are reportedly concerned about information revealed by Unit 8200 sources for the joint media report, which alleged that the data was used to identify targets for strikes in Gaza.
Microsoft pledged to “share with the public the factual findings that result from” the external review, a statement said.
