Microsoft Restricts Israel Defense Ministry’s Azure Access After Surveillance Report

Microsoft has disabled certain Azure services used by Israel’s military to store phone calls acquired through mass surveillance in Gaza and the West Bank. The internal review remains ongoing, with more updates expected within days or weeks. 

“We therefore have informed IMOD [Israel Ministry of Defense] 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,” wrote Brad Smith, vice chair and president at Microsoft, in an internal communication made public on Thursday. “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.” 

Employees and activists have spoken out against the use of Microsoft cloud services in surveillance of Palestinian populations in Gaza and the West Bank.

Guardian investigation revealed surveillance 

Microsoft began to review some of its Israel Defense Forces (IDF) customers after an August 6 article by The Guardian was released. The Guardian revealed Microsoft helped Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, collect and store millions of everyday phone calls in Gaza and the West Bank. IMOD had used its own resources to carry out surveillance, then stored the data in a closed-off Azure environment and analyzed the audio using AI. 

On September 25, Smith confirmed “evidence that supports elements of The Guardian’s reporting. This evidence includes information relating to IMOD consumption of Azure storage capacity in the Netherlands and the use of AI services.” 

As a result, Microsoft ended certain subscriptions and services IMOD had been using, including “specific cloud storage and AI services and technologies.” 

According to Smith, Microsoft came to this conclusion by examining its own “financial statements, internal documents, and email and messaging communications.” Redmond’s investigation did not involve accessing the content IMOD holds, as doing so would violate the customer’s privacy rights, he explained. Instead, the investigation was guided by two principles: not providing technology for mass surveillance of civilians, and respecting the privacy rights of customers. 

Microsoft employees demonstrated for change earlier this year 

Microsoft has a standard commercial relationship with IMOD, the company said in May. 

Around the same time, Microsoft had released a statement in response to concerns from employees and the public about the company’s Azure and AI services being used to target civilians or cause other harm in the conflict in Gaza. At that time, Microsoft found “no evidence” its technology had been used to “target or harm people.”

Groups such as No Azure for Apartheid emerged within Microsoft, asking the company to cease providing services to Israel’s military, among other demands. In April, Microsoft employees Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, both software engineers, were fired after interrupting executives’ speeches to protest the company’s conduct in Israel. 

Concerns about how tech is being used, particularly for surveillance, is not new. For instance, in February, OpenAI researchers found that AI-powered surveillance tools using ChatGPT “seem to originate from China.”