"Microsoft launches inquiry into claims Israel used its tech for mass surveillance of Palestinians", August 15, 2025

Microsoft has launched an “urgent” external inquiry into allegations Israel’s military surveillance agency has used the company’s technology to facilitate the mass surveillance of Palestinians.

The company said... the formal review was in response to a Guardian investigation that revealed how the Unit 8200 spy agency has relied on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to store a vast collection of everyday Palestinian mobile phone calls.

The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found Unit 8200 made use of a customised and segregated area within Azure to store recordings of millions of calls made daily in Gaza and the West Bank.

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 by its terms of service.

The inquiry, to be overseen by lawyers at the US firm Covington & Burling, is the second external review commissioned by Microsoft into the use of its technology by the Israeli military.

The first was launched this year amid dissent within the company and reports by the Guardian and others about Israel’s reliance on the company’s technology during its offensive in Gaza. Announcing the review’s findings..., Microsoft said it had “found no evidence to date” the Israeli military had failed to comply with its terms of service or used Azure “to target or harm people” in Gaza.

However, the recent Guardian investigation prompted concerns among senior Microsoft executives about whether some of its Israel-based employees may have concealed information about how Unit 8200 uses Azure when questioned as part of the review.

Microsoft said... the new inquiry would expand on the earlier one, adding: “Microsoft appreciates that the Guardian’s recent report raises additional and precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review.”

The company is also facing pressure from a worker-led campaign group, No Azure for Apartheid, which has accused it of “complicity in genocide and apartheid” and demanded it cut off “all ties to the Israeli military” and make them publicly known.

Responding to the announcement, the group criticised Microsoft’s decision to launch an inquiry, describing it as “yet another tactic to delay” meeting its demands.

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Senior Microsoft executives had in recent days considered an awkward scenario in which Unit 8200, an important and sensitive customer, could be in breach of the company’s terms of service and human rights commitments, sources said.