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Comment by 01-_- | Hacker News Reader

38 points·01-_-··7 comments

> “We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians," he continued. "We have applied this principle in every country around the world, and we have insisted on it repeatedly for more than two decades.”

You sure about that? Azure Government is used almost exclusively by the US Department of Defense...

Back when I worked at MS, I toured a data center. There was a big cage of servers in the middle of the place. It seemed that every single rack in the data center was wired up to the servers in that cage. “What’s that?” I asked. “Government servers,” said the guide with a knowing wink.

I’d be willing to bet that all US cloud providers have a similar government tie in. So yes, MS absolutely facilitates mass surveillance, in my opinion.

Caspar Bowden is spinning in his grave[1]

[1] rest in power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_Bowden

This original report is being discussed here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45373564

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45373564

Thank you so much Microsoft for standing with common sense and doubling down on the ethical principles in AI. This is in stark contrast with your competitors like Google who have abandoned their moral compass. This is inspiring for researchers like me who had to deal with these glaring ethical issues. Action's like this will keep Microsoft ahead of the game.

Hackers have a love-hate relationship with Microsoft but today, at least, might be one of love.

This has nothing to do with principles or ethics. It's just PR because by now Israel's actions will have us remember what they've done and Microsoft doesn't want to the next IBM that helped organise mass killings.

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