{"id":2943,"date":"2025-09-26T06:37:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T06:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/09\/26\/microsoft-cuts-israeli-militarys-access-to-some-cloud-computing-ai\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T06:37:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T06:37:03","slug":"microsoft-cuts-israeli-militarys-access-to-some-cloud-computing-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/09\/26\/microsoft-cuts-israeli-militarys-access-to-some-cloud-computing-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft cuts Israeli military\u2019s access to some cloud computing, AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Microsoft said the Israeli military\u2019s use of Azure to store data obtained through mass surveillance of Palestinians violated its terms of service.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>United States tech giant Microsoft has cancelled some services it provides to the Israeli military over concerns it is violating its terms of service by using the firm\u2019s cloud computing software to spy on millions of Palestinians, the company\u2019s vice chair and president Brad Smith confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Smith wrote in a Thursday blog post that the company had \u201cceased and disabled a set of services\u201d to a unit within the Israeli Ministry of Defence in response to an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/8\/7\/microsoft-cloud-used-in-israeli-mass-surveillance-of-palestinians-report\">August 6 joint investigation<\/a> by The Guardian newspaper, +972 Magazine, and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/inside-story\/2025\/7\/4\/which-global-companies-are-benefitting-from-the-genocide-in-gaza\">Which global companies are benefitting from the genocide in Gaza?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/8\/7\/microsoft-cloud-used-in-israeli-mass-surveillance-of-palestinians-report\">Microsoft cloud used in Israeli mass surveillance of Palestinians: Report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/8\/29\/microsoft-fires-four-workers-over-protests-against-firms-ties-to-israel\">Microsoft fires four workers over protests against firm\u2019s ties to Israel<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The report alleged that the Israeli military\u2019s Unit 8200 used Microsoft\u2019s Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through mass surveillance in war-torn Gaza and the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n<p>Unit 8200 is the Israeli military\u2019s elite cyber warfare unit responsible for clandestine operations, including collecting signal intelligence and surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation by journalists revealed that following a 2021 meeting between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Unit 8200\u2019s leader Yossi Sariel, an agreement was reached to collaborate on moving large volumes of sensitive intelligence material into the company\u2019s Azure platform.<\/p>\n<p>The process, which has been operational since 2022, allowed Unit 8200 to utilise Azure\u2019s near-limitless storage capacity and computing power to collect, play back and analyse the phone calls of millions of Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>The cloud-based system also helped Israel to guide deadly air strikes and shaped operations across the occupied Palestinian territory, Unit 8200 sources told the news outlets. The report also identified that a large amount of the data on Palestinians appeared to be stored on Microsoft\u2019s Azure servers located in the Netherlands and Ireland.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3984308\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3984308\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-08-28T035934Z_1396020953_RC26V7AIKYP6_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-MICROSOFT-1758855290.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C513&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators march in support of Palestinians in Gaza near the Microsoft Build conference, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, to call for the termination of Microsoft's Azure contracts with Israel in Seattle, Washington, U.S. May 21, 2024. REUTERS\/David Ryder\/File Photo\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3984308\">Demonstrators march in support of Palestinians in Gaza near the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle, Washington, the US, in May 2024 [File: David Ryder\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Microsoft\u2019s Smith said the firm had reviewed the allegations made in the report \u201cbased on two principles\u201d and concluded that the Israeli military data storage violated the company\u2019s terms of service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst, we do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians. We have applied this principle in every country around the world, and we have insisted on it repeatedly for more than two decades,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecond, we respect and protect the privacy rights of our customers,\u201d Smith added.<\/p>\n<p>Smith did not name the specific Israeli unit losing access to Microsoft services, but confirmed that some Israeli Defence Ministry subscriptions, including \u201cspecific cloud storage and AI services and technologies\u201d, had been cancelled.<\/p>\n<p>In February, The Associated Press news agency reported that the Israeli military\u2019s use of Microsoft products spiked after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the start of the devastating war on Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>It similarly reported that the Israeli military was using gigabytes of cloud storage and massive amounts of AI-enabled language translation services for mass surveillance, cross-checked with AI systems to decide on who should be targeted in air strikes.<\/p>\n<p>In May, Microsoft acknowledged it had sold advanced AI and cloud computing services to the Israeli military during its war on Gaza and aided in efforts to locate and rescue Israeli captives in the besieged enclave.<\/p>\n<p>The firm claimed, however, that following an internal review, it found \u201cno evidence\u201d that Azure was being used to target or harm people.<\/p>\n<p>Following the August news investigation, Microsoft commissioned a second review, which was conducted by an outside law firm.<\/p>\n<p>That review is ongoing, but Smith said it had already uncovered evidence that its products were being used in ways that violate its terms of service.<\/p>\n<p>Hossam Nasr, one of more than a dozen <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/8\/29\/microsoft-fires-four-workers-over-protests-against-firms-ties-to-israel\">Microsoft employees fired or arrested<\/a> over protests against the company\u2019s involvement in the Gaza war, hailed the move as an \u201cunprecedented win\u201d, but said the \u201cvast majority of Microsoft\u2019s contract with the Israeli military remains intact\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMicrosoft has only disabled a small subset of services to only one unit in the Israeli military,\u201d Nasr said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft said the Israeli military\u2019s use of Azure to store data obtained through mass surveillance of Palestinians violated its terms of service. United States tech giant Microsoft has cancelled some services it provides to the Israeli military over concerns it is violating its terms of service by using the firm\u2019s cloud computing software to spy &#8230; <a title=\"Microsoft cuts Israeli military\u2019s access to some cloud computing, AI\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/09\/26\/microsoft-cuts-israeli-militarys-access-to-some-cloud-computing-ai\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Microsoft cuts Israeli military\u2019s access to some cloud computing, AI\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}