Microsoft cuts cloud services to Israeli military unit over Palestinian surveillance

Microsoft has stopped access to some technology and services of the Ministry of Israel when an internal investigation has shown that the organization seems to be using its technology to preserve surveillance data on phone calls made by Palestinians.

The Tech Giant announced Thursday that it decided to “stop and disable” some subscriptions from the Israeli military. It affects Azur’s cloud storage and subscriptions of specific AI services.

“We do not provide technology to facilitate the extensive surveillance of civilians, Microsoft Vice Chairs and President Brad Smith wrote Blog postThe “We have applied this policy in every country in the world and we have repeatedly emphasized it for more than two decades. This is why we have publicly explained that Microsoft’s service criteria are banned from using our technology to monitor civilians extensively.”

Microsoft informed Israel about his decision last week, according to GuardianThe

The decision followed by Microsoft’s ongoing review of the subject that began in August. The investigation was spread by a story Guardian It is reported that Azur’s cloud storage was using the data house on phone calls obtained by monitoring Palestinians on Gaza and the West Bank, the elite Israel military intelligence unit.

In his blog post, Smith also said that the company praised Guardian’s preliminary report. Smith writes that without it they could not investigate the matter, they could not access any customer’s content because of the customer’s privacy right.

Smith writes, “As an employee, our customers can rely on our services with the Rock Solid Trust, ensuring that the business is creating the value of the business is interested in protecting the privacy of all,” Smith wrote.

The company has said that the review is still in the review but it is still under review to comment on TechCranch.

Microsoft has been on fire from both employees and foreigners to involve Israel in the past one year. Microsoft’s relationship with Israel The company is broken at 50^Tho Celebrate the anniversary in April. Several employees in August A seat-in stage Smith’s office, forcing a lockdown.

The company has dismissed Multiple employees Microsoft’s deal with Israel in recent months for their activism.