XPost: alt.news.microsoft, alt.business, misc.immigration.usa   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   From: emailbarry@yahoo.com   
      
   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.   
      
   In response, the announcement post was “briefly deleted [...] after   
   seeing commentary in social media,” according to a Microsoft   
   spokesperson who refused to divulge the specific nature of the   
   Azure/ICE partner arrangement. “This was a mistake and as soon as it   
   was noticed the blog was reverted to previous language.”   
      
   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.   
      
   “My sense is that the government cloud group is very much a   
   sales/consulting group, so it’s definitely plausible they could have   
   been working on something specific, but if so then it would likely   
   have been helping them customize existing public product tech,” a   
   current Microsoft employee told Gizmodo.   
      
   The possibility of Microsoft providing cheap, efficient facial   
   recognition software to ICE comes less than a month after the ACLU   
   discovered Amazon had given law enforcement agencies access to its   
   similar in-house tool, Rekognition, and several months after Gizmodo   
   first revealed Google had agreed to assist in Project Maven, a program   
   to help develop artificial intelligence for drone footage analysis for   
   the Pentagon.   
      
   Microsoft told Gizmodo it was “dismayed” by ICE’s actions and that it   
   “urge[d] the administration to change its policy and Congress to pass   
   legislation ensuring children are no longer separated from their   
   families.” Absent from its statement was whether it would continue to   
   provide its cloud services to ICE.   
      
   As more employees become aware of the agreement—and the recent   
   activities of ICE—it remains to be seen what response these internal   
   frustrations will draw from Microsoft’s leadership.   
      
   Do you work for Microsoft and have thoughts or information on this ICE   
   partnership? Get in touch via email to get my Signal number, chat with   
   me on Keybase, or send documents anonymously to our Secure Drop   
   server.   
      
   https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-employees-up-in-arms-over-cloud-co   
   tract-with-1826927803   
      
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