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Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

theguardian.com

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Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#51

Post by yamazakiwi »

mrits wrote: post #31
n1b0m wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lack of surveillance wasn’t the problem. It was not believing the intelligence. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/28/israeli-milita...

Such a Monday quarterback's perspective. There is always plenty of intelligence to suggest there will be an attack

The amount of intelligence to suggest there will be an attack on specific places at specific times is contextual and not comparably equal.

Every time I hear or read that expression, I stop taking the comment seriously because it attempts to shut down dialogue with a cute, esoteric phrase instead of fostering a discussion about a serious retrospective.

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#52

Post by tiahura »

vFunct wrote: post #25
tiahura wrote: post #5

A little more surveillance might have prevented Oct 7.

[flagged]

I really don't care. I'm just pointing out that surveillance often means thing get nipped in the bud instead of festering and blowing up.

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#53

Post by igleria »

hdlothia wrote: post #15

Kinda bullish for azure that the idf chose it over aws

Not sure about that. To many companies or individuals, it might make them choose another provider. Unless... they already are Azure customers, in which case they might probably want to avoid the cost of moving from a cloud provider

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#55

Post by glenstein »

computerex wrote: post #43
mrits wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The word genocide has a legal definition, it’s not up for discussion or debate. What is happening in Gaza is a genocide according to genocide scholars.

It is perhaps important, also, for genocide scholarship to survey the ways proponents rotate through various forms of apologetics. Not that I would wish it to be the case but the last few years are rich in case studies for how people debate and communicate about genocide, and it's attempts to muddy definitional waters that make it so important to have strong scholarship and scholarly consensus.

A long way of agreeing with your point, I suppose.

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#56

Post by Aeolun »

Cenk wrote: post #4

> 11,500 terabytes of Israeli military data – equivalent to approximately 200m hours of audio – was held in Microsoft’s Azure servers in the Netherlands

It bothers me more that it was held in the Netherlands than that it was held on Azure servers.

It’s a fucking disgrace to any government to be facilitating anything like this, and the Netherlands seems extra complicit.

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#57

Post by tasn »

hdlothia wrote: post #15

Kinda bullish for azure that the idf chose it over aws

Israel (like many governments) is very Microsoft Windows centric, so if I had to guess it wasn't chosen due to technical merits but instead based on existing business relationships.

Note: I've used Azure and it sucks. :)

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#58

Post by sieep »

some-guy wrote: post #42
rhetocj23 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sentiment toward Israel outside of USA has changed. The leaders of the developed nations of Europe have gone against Trump and publicly stated their recognition of Palestine.

It has changed quite a bit here in the US too, even among the Jewish population. Our synagogue is very divided on this, mainly between the young and the old.

Very true. I've gone on dates with a couple Jewish women over the past two or three years & they've all staunchly supported Palestine which surprised me a bit.

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#59

Post by dh2022 »

Cenk wrote: post #4

> 11,500 terabytes of Israeli military data – equivalent to approximately 200m hours of audio – was held in Microsoft’s Azure servers in the Netherlands

I wonder why IDC choose the Netherlands location. Microsoft has one Azure region in Israel itself: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/reliability/regions-...

Re: Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its tech in mass surveillance of Palestinians

#60

Post by scuff3d »

ms7m wrote: post #37
scuff3d wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More likely MS was well aware of what was going on and didn't care until the Guardian forced their hand.

> The disclosures caused alarm among senior Microsoft executives, sparking concerns that some of its Israel-based employees may not have been fully transparent about their knowledge of how Unit 8200 used Azure when questioned as part of the review. Highly likely, or at least a bit naive -- Completely reasonable to have local staff for a contract this big, but Microsoft should have independently 'double-checked' soone…

The head of that Israeli unit met directly with the CEO of MS. I don't buy a second the execs at MS didn't know what was going on. Blaming the local contractors is just MS throwing people under the bus.

I've worked for big corporations for nearly 20 years, I've seen this more times then I can count. Higher ups always happy to turn a blind eye to a bad situation as long as it's making the company money, and then immediately throwing subordinates under the bus when it bites them in the ass.

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