Underneath the spreading chestnut tree...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/microsoft-israeli-military-palesti
'Disclosures about the role of Microsoft’s Azure platform in the surveillance project come as the US tech giant faces pressure from employees and investors over its ties to Israel’s military and the role its technology has played in the 22-month offensive in Gaza.
In May, an employee disrupted a keynote speech by Nadella in an act of protest, at one point yelling: “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?”
'Following a 2015 wave of deadly so-called “lone wolf” attacks by young Palestinians, many of whom were teenagers unknown to the security services, Sariel had overseen a significant expansion of the volume of Palestinian communications that Unit 8200 intercepted and stored.
His answer was to begin “tracking everyone, all the time”, said an officer who worked for Sariel at the time. Instead of traditional surveillance of specific targets, Sariel’s project relied on mass surveillance of Palestinians in the West Bank and used novel AI methods to extract insights.
“Suddenly the entire public was our enemy,” said another source who worked on the project, which sought to predict whether someone represented a threat to Israeli security. |  |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
