Saudi Arabia: HRW & others call for Microsoft to suspend investment in cloud data centre, citing concerns over co.'s ability to uphold human rights; incl. co. response
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In April 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published an analysis of the risks to human rights posed by Microsoft's establishing a cloud data centre in Saudi Arabia. HRW said it wrote to Microsoft in February 2023 highlighting concerns around the state's violations of privacy, freedom of expressions, association, nondiscrimination and due process rights.
HRW point to Saudi Arabia's track record of using digital surveillance technology to target human rights activists and political dissidents, coupled with new regulations permitting government agencies to access personal data, to indicate how companies' committing to protect users' privacy rights may not be able to uphold their human rights commitments. Specifically, HRW states that Saudi Arabia's laws and practices fall short of both international human rights standards and the standards outlined in Microsoft's Trusted Cloud Principles. The NGO has called on Microsoft to suspend expansion of its cloud data centre until it can "clearly demonstrate how it will mitigate the risk of facilitating serious human rights violations".
Saudi authorities have grievously violated their own citizens’ right to privacy by hacking phones, infiltrating major tech companies, and passing laws granting sweeping surveillance powers to government entities. Microsoft should not shut its eyes to Saudi Arabia’s abuses and should halt its investment until the company can meaningfully explain how it will mitigate human rights risks.Arvind Ganesan, economic justice and human rights director at Human Rights Watch.
HRW had posed a series of questions to Micrsoft; the company provided information but asked for the responses not to be published. Business & Human Rights Resource invited Microsoft to respond to the suspension call; its response can be read in full below.
In May, 17 more organisations, including several leading Middle East-based NGOs and rights groups, added their voices to the call.