Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Courtesy of FIDF
Unit 8200 is an Israeli Intelligence Corps unit of the IDF responsible for collecting signal intelligence (SIGINT) and code decryption
(JNS) — Microsoft has terminated the Israeli military’s access to parts of its cloud and artificial intelligence services after confirming that Unit 8200, the IDF’s elite signals intelligence branch, had used its Azure platform to support a mass surveillance program targeting Palestinian civilians.
The move follows an investigation by U.K.’s The Guardian, conducted with +972 Magazine and Local Call, two far-left Israeli news sites, which revealed that Unit 8200 had built a vast system to collect, store and analyze millions of phone calls from Palestinians in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
The program was capable of intercepting “a million calls an hour” and storing thousands of terabytes of data in Microsoft’s European data centers. The scale of intercepted calls equaled as much as 8,000 terabytes of data, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith confirmed the company’s decision in a Sept. 25 message to employees, stressing that it stemmed from long-standing company principles.
“We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians,” Smith wrote. “We have applied this principle in every country around the world, and we have insisted on it repeatedly for more than two decades.”
Smith explained that the company’s review, launched after an initial Guardian story in August, found evidence that corroborated parts of the allegation.
“While our review is ongoing, we have found evidence that supports elements of The Guardian’s reporting. This evidence includes information relating to [the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s] consumption of Azure storage capacity in the Netherlands and the use of AI services.”
“At no point has Microsoft accessed IMOD’s customer content. Rather, the review has focused on Microsoft’s own business records, including financial statements, internal documents, and email and messaging communications,” he said.
According to Smith, Microsoft informed Israel’s Ministry of Defense that it had ceased and disabled “specified IMOD subscriptions and their services, including their use of specific cloud storage and AI services and technologies.”
He reiterated that the company had made clear to Israeli officials that it would not allow its technology to be used in mass civilian surveillance: “We have reviewed this decision with IMOD and the steps we are taking to ensure compliance with our terms of service, focused on ensuring our services are not used for mass surveillance of civilians.”
The Guardian reported that after its initial story, Unit 8200 quickly transferred its massive data trove out of Microsoft’s Netherlands servers, reportedly moving it to Amazon Web Services. Neither AWS nor the IDF responded to requests for comment.
The Guardian, +972 and Local Call investigation sparked protests at Microsoft’s U.S. headquarters and one of its European data centers. A campaign by Microsoft workers, ‘No Azure for Apartheid,’ called for the company to end all ties to the Israeli military.
While cutting access to Unit 8200, Smith stressed that Microsoft continues to maintain a broader relationship with Israel. “As I said at our recent employee townhall, this does not impact the important work that Microsoft continues to do to protect the cybersecurity of Israel and other countries in the Middle East, including under the Abraham Accords.”
He added that the company would continue to be guided by ethics in its operations: “We will hold every decision, statement and action to this standard. This is non-negotiable.”
The decision marks the first known instance of a U.S. technology company terminating services to the Israeli military since the Gaza war began, according to The Guardian.
For Microsoft, the termination underscores an attempt to draw a line between its commitment to its cybersecurity partnership with Israel and its refusal to support surveillance programs that sweep up civilian communications.
