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

(www.theguardian.com)
873 points helsinkiandrew | 10 comments | 25 Sep 25 15:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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dark_mode ◴[25 Sep 25 17:05 UTC] No.45375569[source]▶
> The decision has not affected Microsoft’s wider commercial relationship with the IDF, which is a longstanding client and will retain access to other services. The termination will raise questions within Israel about the policy of holding sensitive military data in a third-party cloud hosted overseas.

It's worth noting that even after finding out the "most moral" army is conducting mass surveillance, they're still happy to provide them services.

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tick_tock_tick ◴[25 Sep 25 19:29 UTC] No.45377762[source]▶
Doesn't every army conduct "mass surveillance"? What do you think all those satellites with cameras are doing orbiting the planet?

Wouldn't the opposite be incredibly immoral? Attacking/bombing/etc without large scale surveillance would largely mean increased collateral damage.

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1. lordofgibbons ◴[25 Sep 25 19:44 UTC] No.45377972[source]▶
Are you seriously equating observing an area using satellites with indiscriminately monitoring everyone's calls, messages, and possibly hacking their devices?
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2. holmesworcester ◴[25 Sep 25 20:11 UTC] No.45378326[source]▶
And not in a war zone, even. (West Bank is governed by Israel.)
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3. dragonwriter ◴[25 Sep 25 20:14 UTC] No.45378375[source]▶
The West Bank is occupied by Israel and Israel has overall control, but it is broken up into a whole bunch of tiny administrative regions, some of which are administered by the PA and some of which are administered directly by Israel.
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4. 3form ◴[25 Sep 25 20:35 UTC] No.45378662[source]▶
Given lackluster response to the recent attempts of the "democratic" governments to do very much the same to their own citizens, I daresay not many are particularly impressed.
5. babu657 ◴[25 Sep 25 21:33 UTC] No.45379415{3}[source]▶
Gee i wonder what happens if Israel just let the west bank be. Wait…i know what will happen
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6. tguvot ◴[25 Sep 25 22:15 UTC] No.45379892{4}[source]▶
Rocket factories, like the one that was discovered week ago https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjbqu9qolx
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7. pcthrowaway ◴[25 Sep 25 22:40 UTC] No.45380164[source]▶
Additionally, there is observation AI face tracking of all movements of Palestinians in the West Bank, who live under occupation. While other governments may also conduct monitoring of their citizens to varying degrees, the distinction is that they are monitoring citizens, not using monitoring to enforce military apartheid.
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8. Manuel_D ◴[25 Sep 25 22:47 UTC] No.45380240[source]▶
Militaries do that too. Signals Intelligence has been thing since radios were used by the military. I bet you that in Ukraine the moment you fire up any RF emitter it's showing up on someone's spectrum analyzer. And if it's unencrypted or a broken encryption they'll probably be decoding and logging the transmission.
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9. AlecSchueler ◴[26 Sep 25 09:16 UTC] No.45384459[source]▶
> bet you that in Ukraine the moment you fire up any RF emitter

The assertion was that "every army" is doing it, not that it's happening in active warzones.

10. raxxorraxor ◴[30 Sep 25 11:14 UTC] No.45424127[source]▶
I case of Hezbollah it was very much worth it.