Microsoft is changing its policy for investing in companies that provide sensitive technology such as facial recognition, the company announced on its own website. The adaptation follows an investigation into the Israeli company AnyVision, which applies facial recognition to the border between Israel and the West Bank.
Microsoft acquired a minority stake in AnyVision after an investment, but is now withdrawing it. A minority interest, according to Microsoft, “does not allow the level of oversight or control” that the company would like to apply.
The company is therefore changing its policy to end minority investments in companies that sell facial recognition technology. “With that, Microsoft is shifting its focus to relationships that give the company greater oversight and control over the use of sensitive technologies,” the company said.
In 2019 former employees of AnyVision switched to NBC News with the statement that Microsoft would violate ethical agreements about the use of Israeli technology. In July, AnyVision was already central to a profile in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, who wrote that in addition to border controls, the company was also working on a confidential project to monitor Palestinians in the West Bank.
Microsoft initiated investigations
After reporting, Microsoft initiated an investigation. It concludes that “the available evidence shows that AnyVisions technology has not been used to power a mass surveillance program in the West Bank”.
Thus, the investment would technically meet Microsoft’s ethical guidelines. Still, the company has decided to sell its stake in AnyVision.
– .
