Irish officials have received a formal request to look into Microsoft regarding claims of unlawful data processing by the Israel Defense Forces.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), a human rights organization, filed the complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner, who is legally charged with overseeing all data processing activities within the European Union.
This comes after reports in August from the Guardian, along with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew media Local Call, highlighted that substantial amounts of Palestinian phone communications were stored on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform as part of an extensive surveillance initiative by the Israeli military.
The ICCL asserts that the handling of personal data “aided in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by Israeli forces.” Microsoft’s European headquarters are located in Ireland.
“Microsoft’s technologies are endangering millions of Palestinians. These are not just theoretical data protection issues,” said Joe O’Brien, executive director of ICCL.
He remarked that cloud services “enable tangible violence” and emphasized the need for the “DPC to respond swiftly and decisively” given the “risk to life involved in the matter at hand.”
He further stated, “When European infrastructure is used to facilitate surveillance and targeting, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner must step in and utilize its full authority to hold Microsoft accountable.”
A collection of leaked documents reviewed by the Guardian has indicated that as early as 2021, the Israeli military’s intelligence unit, Unit 8200, started discussions to transfer large amounts of classified intelligence data to a cloud service operated by a US company.
The documents revealed that Microsoft’s storage facilities were employed by Unit 8200 to archive extensive records of Palestinian daily communications, which facilitated specific airstrikes and other military actions.
Following this revelation, Microsoft initiated an urgent external inquiry into its connections with Unit 8200. Preliminary findings led the company to suspend this unit’s access to certain cloud storage and AI services.
ICCL contends that Microsoft played a crucial role in enabling Israel’s military surveillance system known as “Al-Minasek.”
The organization claims that records of intercepted conversations between EU servers and Israel were reportedly “deleted,” obstructing evidence of unlawful processing before an EU inquiry could commence, violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that regulates personal data usage.
With Azure’s vast storage and computational capabilities, Unit 8200 was establishing an indiscriminate system allowing agents to collect, replay, and analyze cell phone calls from entire populations.
A spokesperson for the DPC stated, “We can confirm that the DPC has received the complaint and is currently evaluating it.”
Microsoft has been approached for a response.
Source: www.theguardian.com
