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The Trump administration has been heavily invested in consolidating all of the government’s information into a single searchable, or perhaps AI-queryable, super database. The compiling of all of this information is being done with the dubious justification of efficiency and modernization–however, in many cases, this information was originally siloed for important reasons: to protect your privacy, to prevent different branches of government from using sensitive data to punish or harass you, and to perserve the trust in and legitimacy of important civic institutions.
Microsoft has partially cut off services to a unit within the Israeli Ministry of Defence (IMOD) after its technology was used for mass surveillance on Gaza civilians.
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, stated that using the company’s technology for mass civilian surveillance violates its standard terms of service.
The decision was prompted by a recent investigative report from The Guardian that detailed the unit’s surveillance activities.
icrosoft, tacitly admitting it has failed at talking all the Windows 10 PC users into moving to Windows 11 after all, is – sort of, kind of – extending Windows 10 support for another year.
For most users, that means they'll need to subscribe to Microsoft 365. This, in turn, means their data and meta-information will be kept in a US-based datacenter. That isn't sitting so well with many European Union (EU) organizations and companies. It doesn't sit that well with me or a lot of other people either.