A recent investigation revealed that Microsoft’s cloud services, Azure, store 11,500 terabytes of Israeli military data. That’s approximately 200 million hours of audio. This is part of a custom plan Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, negotiated with Microsoft to provide practically unlimited storage of their data.
The plan started in 2022 when Israel was supposed to track “lone wolf” attacks by young Palestinians otherwise not tracked by their security intelligence. This expanded to “tracking everyone, all the time,” relying on mass surveillance of Palestinian civilians to identify so-called “threats.” The project’s goal was to track “a million calls an hour” – everyday phone conversations of Palestinians. When Microsoft was asked about this, they said they “are not aware” of their cloud services being used to store civilian data.
This mass surveillance project failed to prevent the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. Unit 8200’s commander Yossi Sariel faced criticism and ultimately resigned. Sources say he prioritized “addictive and exciting” technology to carry out these surveillance projects. Microsoft appears to have gladly accepted the challenge to push their AI and cloud services further, providing a large portion of their datacenters in the Netherlands and Ireland to store these massive amounts of data.
It’s alarming to know how readily tech giants like Microsoft support Israeli military projects, effectively enabling the genocide in Gaza. There always seems to be enough resources and technology for war, and examples like this show these companies can evade any responsibility. Many Microsoft workers have been protesting the company’s complicity in the genocide, forming groupings like No Azure for Apartheid. Microsoft has recently fired employees for participating in these protests and arrested several others.
Microsoft continues to deny their services are being used for this mass surveillance of civilians, hiding behind the fact that their terms of service don’t allow them full visibility into their customers’ usage of their platforms. The company said it would conduct an independent investigation into how their technology is being used by the Israel Defense Force. But as Hossam Nasr, an activist and former employee put it, “It’s way too urgent for investigations. There is no time left to investigate.” Already the genocide has claimed over 60,000 lives and put nearly two million people at risk of starvation. This system will do everything to protect “innovation” and corporate interests at the cost of human lives.
