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Article

19 Jun 2018

Author:
Bryan Menegus, Gizmodo (USA)

Microsoft Employees Up in Arms Over Cloud Contract With ICE

Tensions are high within Microsoft, as new scrutiny is given to a partnership between the company’s Azure Government cloud computing arm and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to several Microsoft employees who spoke to Gizmodo on the condition of anonymity. Two were considering leaving the company based on the response. The partnership was first made public in late January, where Microsoft announced it was “proud to support” the agency’s efforts—but given the size of the company, many employees were not even aware any such agreement was in place until recently. A likely catalyst is the recent revelations that ICE separates asylum-seeking families and confines children in cages...Internally, as news of the contract spread, employees expressed their dissent. “This is the sort of thing that would make me question staying,” one employee told Gizmodo. Another echoed, “I’ll seriously consider leaving if I’m not happy with how they handle this.” Microsoft condemned family separation by ICE in a statement to Gizmodo but declined to specify if specific tools within Azure Government, like Face API—facial recognition software—were in use by the agency. The company also did not comment on whether it had assisted in building artificial intelligence tools for ICE, something the agency has been seeking (and courting Microsoft over) for some time.

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