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Ireland has been asked to investigate Microsoft after ICCL alleged its Azure cloud aided IDF in surveillance and attacks on Palestinians, with the DPC assessing the complaint.
According to some documents reviewed by The Guardian, Israeli military spy agency, Unit 8200, had accessed talks dated to 2021.(Representational image/Reuters)
Ireland has been asked to investigate Microsoft over alleged unlawful data processing by the Israeli Defense Forces.
According to The Guardian, the complaint was made by the human rights group the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) to the Data Protection Commission, which has legal responsibility in Europe for overseeing all data processing in the European Union. Microsoft’s headquarters in Europe is in Ireland.
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According to ICCL, the processing of the personal data “facilitated war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by Israeli military”.
Joe O’Brien, the executive director of ICCL, said: “Microsoft’s technology has put millions of Palestinians in danger. These are not abstract data-protection failures.”
The Guardian quoted Brien as saying that the cloud services “enabled real-world violence” and it was “essential that the DPC move quickly and decisively” in view of the “threat to life posed by the issues at the heart of this complaint”.
“When EU infrastructure is used to enable surveillance and targeting, the Irish Data Protection Commission must step in – and it must use its full powers to hold Microsoft to account,” he added.
This comes after an investigation by The Guardian along with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew outlet Local Call revealed that numerous phone calls of Palestinians were being stored on Microsoft’s cloud service, Azure, as part of a mass surveillance operation by the Israeli military.
According to some documents reviewed by The Guardian, Israeli military spy agency, Unit 8200, had accessed talks dated to 2021.
The documents showed how Microsoft’s storage facility had been used by Unit 8200 to store an expansive archive of everyday Palestinian communications, facilitating targeted airstrikes and other military operations, The Guardian reported.
In response to the documents, Microsoft ordered an urgent external inquiry to review its links with the spy agency which later led to the Unit’s access to some of its cloud storage and AI services.
A spokesperson for the DPC said: “I can confirm that the DPC has received a complaint and it is currently under assessment.”
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First Published:
December 04, 2025, 22:31 IST
News world Ireland Asked To Probe Microsoft Over Unlawful Data Processing By Israeli Military
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