Microsoft Probes Claims of Israel Using Its Cloud for Mass Surveillance Across Palestine

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The American tech giant Microsoft has opened an external investigation into allegations that Israel's military intelligence unit is using its cloud technology to conduct mass surveillance of Palestinians.

The investigation comes after a joint report by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and the Hebrew-language media Local Call as reported by Arab News on Friday, August 16, 2025.

According to the report, Israel's Unit 8200 spy agency—equivalent to the US National Security Agency—uses Microsoft's Azure cloud services to store a large archive of intercepted and recorded phone calls from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The joint media report also revealed extensive ties between Microsoft's office in Israel and the intelligence unit. This finding has raised concerns among U.S. tech giants' executives, who worry that employees based in Israel may have concealed information about the nature of their work with Unit 8200.

Microsoft's office in Israel, as part of its collaboration with the unit, created a separate special framework within the Azure platform to store intercepted phone call archives.

The Unit 8200 leaders intended to use this surveillance project to record "millions of calls per hour" across the Palestinian territories.

In a statement, Microsoft stated that “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 under its terms of service.

The tech giant appointed lawyers from US firm Covington & Burling to oversee the inquiry.

It is the second external probe initiated by Microsoft in relation to its ties with the Israeli military.

The first investigation, conducted earlier this year, did not find any "evidence to date" that the Israel Defense Forces had violated Microsoft's terms of service or used Azure cloud services "to target or harm people" in Gaza.

However, this latest investigation will expand on the previous one, with Microsoft agreeing that "The Guardian's recent report raises additional and precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review."

Pressure has also been mounting within Microsoft through a campaign group led by employees, No Azure for Apartheid.

The group, accusing the tech giant of being of “complicity in genocide and apartheid,” has urged Microsoft to sever all ties with the Israeli military.

Sources within Microsoft told The Guardian that company leadership is working hard to assess the Azure data.

They are reportedly concerned with the information disclosed by Unit 8200 sources for the joint media report, which alleges that the data is being used to identify targets for attacks in Gaza.

Microsoft has promised to  “share with the public the factual findings that result from” the external review with the public, a statement said.

Protest from Within

This investigation follows a protest by a Microsoft engineer against the company's leadership at the Build 2025 conference in Seattle in mid-May. Joe Lopez, a firmware engineer in the Azure hardware system team and a member of the No Azure for Apartheid activist group, accused the tech company of being involved in Israel's genocide, which has killed more than 56,100 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023.

Joe Lopez interrupted CEO Satya Nadella's keynote speech, as reported by Anadolu. "Satya! How about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians? How about you show the Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure," he shouted.

"As a Microsoft worker, I refuse to be complicit in this genocide," Lopez firmly stated before being escorted out of the event. He joined a former Google employee who had previously protested the company's cloud contract with Israel.

Following this, Lopez sent an email to thousands of Microsoft colleagues expressing his disappointment with the company's ongoing contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

"I can no longer stand by in silence as Microsoft continues to facilitate Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people," Lopez wrote, dismissing Microsoft's internal reviews as inadequate and calling for greater transparency.

"Leadership rejects our claims that Azure technology is being used to target or harm civilians in Gaza. Those of us who have been paying attention know that this is a bold-faced lie," the email said.

This protest reflects increasing tension within the broader No Azure for Apartheid movement, an active collective of current and retired Microsoft employees who oppose contracts they claim support mass surveillance and AI-based communication monitoring in Gaza.

Microsoft has confirmed the provision of cloud and AI services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, but denies its equipment is used to harm civilians.

Editor’s Choice: Israel-Induced Starvation in Gaza Draws Condemnation from European Nations

Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News