‘Data is control’: what we learned from a year investigating the Israeli military’s ties to big tech

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1. Hi r/geopolitics, this is Jake from The Guardian. We wanted to share this story that we just published where reporters Harry Davis and Yuval Abraham Davies discussed what they learned this year – about the role of surveillance and AI technologies in Israel’s assault on Gaza, whether the IDF’s business ties to tech companies are sustainable, and what the revelations tell us about how the wars of the future will be fought.

   *From The Guardian:*

   In January this year, Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham [first reported](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/23/israeli-military-gaza-war-microsoft) that Microsoft had deepened its ties to Israel alongside other major tech firms. Since then, the Guardian has published an [award-winning](https://pressgazette.co.uk/press-gazette-events/british-journalism-awards-winners-2025-channel-4-news-and-cathy-newman-receive-top-prizes/) series of investigations – in partnership with the Israeli-Palestinian publication [+972 Magazine](https://www.972mag.com/) and the Hebrew-language outlet [Local Call](https://www.mekomit.co.il/) – that has revealed a symbiotic relationship between Silicon Valley and the Israeli military.

   One investigation exposed an Israeli mass surveillance program scooping up virtually all Palestinian phone calls and storing them on [Microsoft’s cloud services](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/microsoft-israeli-military-palestinian-phone-calls-cloud) – setting off an inquiry that ultimately prompted the company to [cut off](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/25/microsoft-blocks-israels-use-of-its-technology-in-mass-surveillance-of-palestinians) Israel’s access to some of its technology. Another story revealed that the Israeli military created a [ChatGPT-like tool](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/06/israel-military-ai-surveillance) to analyze data collected through the surveillance of Palestinians. Yet another revealed that Google and Amazon had agreed to [extraordinary terms](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/29/google-amazon-israel-contract-secret-code) to clinch a lucrative contract with Israel.

   Our reporting revealed a symbiotic relationship between the IDF and Silicon Valley – with implications for the future of warfare.

   [*You can read the full story for free at this link.*](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/30/israeli-military-big-tech?referring_host=Reddit&utm_campaign=guardianacct)

2. Israel also has its own [tech center](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Wadi). While this article highlights serious concerns about how certain technologies were used by the IDF, the situation is not simply evidence of Big Tech intentionally enabling harm. Israel’s high-tech capability is primarily indigenous: commercial tech partnerships are complex and reviewed; and internal and external accountability mechanisms influence these relationships over time. Ethical deployment of tech in conflict zones is a global issue not an indictment of one nation’s tech ecosystem alone.

   Also Yuval Abraham uses the term “carpet bombing” which is rhetorically loaded and analytically sloppy. It has a specific historical meaning: indiscriminate, area-saturation bombing which does not accurately describe modern strike doctrine. If the claim is that Israeli operations cause excessive civilian harm, that should be argued with evidence, casualty ratios, targeting procedures, and rules of engagement, not imprecise buzzwords that collapse distinction and intent into emotion.

3. As a technologist for a few decades, and an amateur student of history, I can say with certainty that every technology ever invented since the wheel has been used for the worst purpose people could imagine, and many purposes no one could imagine at the time

   But yeah… Israel…

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