Microsoft announced it is tightening human rights controls in its work with security forces worldwide, following an internal review of the IDF’s use of the company’s cloud technology.
The review was launched last year after an investigative report found that Unit 8200 used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to store and analyze millions of Palestinian phone calls each day, sparking internal and public controversy.
The new measures include a reassessment of security classification procedures in countries outside the United States. Microsoft said it would make changes to ensure employees understand how to handle security clearance requirements as part of their work.
The company will also introduce stricter background checks before signing national security-related contracts, and conduct periodic reviews to ensure customers comply with its acceptable use policy, especially under new political circumstances or in high-risk conflict zones.
Additional channels will be made available for employees who want to raise concerns about the development or deployment of technologies, including anonymously. The company also plans to increase internal awareness of its human rights controls.
Microsoft had already suspended and canceled specific cloud and AI service subscriptions for Israel’s Defense Ministry last September, after preliminary findings indicated that the intelligence unit had violated the company’s terms of service.
In a summary of the review, Microsoft said its factual findings remained unchanged, and that it would adopt a series of recommendations intended to improve “the effectiveness of our human rights governance.” In its statement, Microsoft said its relationship with the Defense Ministry is commercial and standard, and stressed that it prohibits uses that enable mass surveillance of civilian populations.
Aid after Oct. 7 and the departure of the Israeli CEO
In the official document, Microsoft acknowledged that, beyond its regular commercial relationship with the Defense Ministry, it provided Israel with limited emergency assistance in the weeks after October 7 to help rescue hostages.
According to the company, the assistance was provided under special oversight, some requests were approved and others were rejected, and it was limited in time and services. Microsoft said it still provides the Defense Ministry with software, professional services, Azure services and Azure AI services, including language translation, and continues to work with Israel on cyber defense.
At the same time, last month Microsoft announced that Alon Haimovich, the company’s Israel CEO, was leaving his post amid violations of the company’s code of ethics regarding engagements and sales with Israeli security bodies. Several other managers also left the company.
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last month Microsoft announced that Alon Haimovich, the company’s Israel CEO, was leaving his post
(Photo: Tal Shahar)
People familiar with the company’s internal investigation said it examined how Microsoft employees in Tel Aviv “experienced conflicting loyalties between their duties to the company and their support for the IDF” after the October 7 attack. The review also found that several employees involved in managing projects with Unit 8200 had previously served, or currently serve as reservists, in the unit itself.
The disclosures about the company’s involvement in military activity led to protests by an employee activist group called “No Azure for Apartheid,” which organized repeated demonstrations against Microsoft and its leadership.
The activists protested at the company’s U.S. headquarters and at one of its data centers in Europe. In late August, pro-Palestinian demonstrators even entered the office of company President Brad Smith in Redmond, Washington.
This week, activists demonstrated outside the company’s annual developers conference in San Francisco, holding signs reading “Microsoft funds genocide” and demanding that it “cut ties with Israel immediately.”
In October, Human Rights Watch called on Microsoft to avoid contributing to human rights violations, saying the company’s contracts with Israeli authorities required close scrutiny “in light of the prolonged nature of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.”
Despite external pressure and demands for transparency from NGOs, Microsoft shareholders in December rejected a proposal requiring the company to assess the effectiveness of its human rights due diligence processes.
Other technology companies, including Amazon, Google, OpenAI and Palantir, have also faced public criticism over contracts with Israel and technologies used in the war in Gaza.