{"id":264412,"date":"2026-06-04T17:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T21:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/04\/microsoft-to-tighten-human-rights-measures-after-inquiry-into-israels-use-of-its-tech-microsoft\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T18:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:00:32","slug":"microsoft-to-tighten-human-rights-measures-after-inquiry-into-israels-use-of-its-tech-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/04\/microsoft-to-tighten-human-rights-measures-after-inquiry-into-israels-use-of-its-tech-microsoft\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft to tighten human rights measures after inquiry into Israel\u2019s use of its tech | Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft to tighten human rights measures after inquiry into Israel\u2019s use of its tech | Microsoft<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jun\/04\/microsoft-to-tighten-human-rights-measures-after-inquiry-into-israels-use-of-its-tech<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-04 17:24:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Microsoft has said it will tighten human-rights controls when working with national security agencies after an inquiry into how the Israeli military used its cloud technology for the mass surveillance of Palestinians.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Microsoft announced the completion of the inquiry and a series of new measures that include changes to how the company oversees employees with security clearances issued by foreign governments.<\/p>\n

Microsoft ordered the inquiry last year in response to a Guardian investigation with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call revealing how the Israeli military used the company\u2019s cloud to store a vast trove of intercepted Palestinian phone calls.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the inquiry was launched, Microsoft terminated the Israeli military\u2019s access to cloud and AI services used to support the surveillance project after initial findings showed its spy agency, Unit 8200, had violated the company\u2019s terms of service.<\/p>\n

In a summary of the inquiry\u2019s outcome, Microsoft said its \u201cfactual findings remain the same\u201d and it would adopt a series of recommendations intended to improve the \u201ceffectiveness of our human-rights governance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Described as a \u201cfinal update\u201d on the situation, the announcement attempts to draw a line under a challenging episode for Microsoft that placed a spotlight on the role played by its technology in the Israeli military\u2019s bombardment of Gaza and operations in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

The Guardian investigation last year found Unit 8200 had used Microsoft\u2019s Azure cloud platform to operate an indiscriminate system that allowed its intelligence officers to collect, play back and analyse the content of millions of Palestinian cellular phone calls every day.<\/p>\n

The revelations prompted concerns at a senior level within Microsoft that some employees at its Israeli subsidiary had not been fully transparent with headquarters about their knowledge of how Unit 8200 used the company\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft to tighten human rights measures after inquiry into Israel\u2019s use of its tech |…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/f36458784b93fd8a4087d457a37e08ed2b9790d0\/335_0_3331_2666\/master\/3331.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=964fb6a598aa519052b3c446603e9cc1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-264412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264414,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264412\/revisions\/264414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}