Microsoft trims service to Israel over mass surveillance in Gaza, West Bank

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft on Thursday said it cut an Israeli defense unit’s access to some cloud services apparently being used as part of a mass surveillance operation in Gaza.

The move came after Microsoft spent more than two months investigating a report in The Guardian that the Israeli Defense Force was using cloud service Azure “for the storage of data files of phone calls obtained through broad or mass surveillance of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.”