Brad Smith, president of Microsoft Corporation, announced Friday that the company has told the Israeli military to cease using Azure to store civilian surveillance calls. File Photo by Anna Rose Layden/UPI | License Photo
Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Microsoft has ended a portion of the Israel Ministry of Defense's access to technology it used to spy on Palestinian civilians' phone calls in Gaza and the West Bank, calling it a violation of Microsoft's terms of service.
Late last week, Microsoft told Israeli officials that spy agency Unit 8200 were in violation of Microsoft's terms of service by storing surveillance data in Azure, a cloud service, The Guardian reported.
Microsoft released a statement that it wrote to employees Thursday about its internal investigation after an article The Guardian published in August that revealed what the Ministry of Defense was using Azure for.
"While our review is ongoing, we have found 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," Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, said in the statement.
