For at least the last six or so years, Microsoft has worked hard to portray itself as a kinder, gentler tech company, a stark contrast to other Big Tech behemoths like Meta, Google, Amazon, and — since Donald J. Trump’s election to the presidency in 2024 —  Apple.

Even The New York Times has noted the company’s efforts, writing that Microsoft “spent most of the 1990s and early 2000s as tech’s biggest company and villain. It now seems to be auditioning for a different role: the industry’s moral conscience…, Satya Nadella, its chief executive, and Brad Smith, its president, have emerged as some of the most outspoken advocates in the industry for protecting user privacy and establishing ethical guidelines for new technology like artificial intelligence.”

Since Trump’s return to office, the company has appeared to take that role even more seriously. The top execs at Apple, Google, Meta and Amazon were all front and center at last year’s inauguration. They’ve gone along with his policies, met with him often, and praised him frequently, with Apple CEO Tim Cook even giving him a gift made in large part of 24 karat gold. 

Nadella and Microsoft stood in contrast to them all. He didn’t attend Trump’s swearing in. Microsoft dropped the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett law firm after it agreed to give the administration $125 million in free legal work amid threats from Trump. (Microsoft hired Jenner & Block to take its place; Jenner & Block had sued the Trump administration instead of giving in to it.)

And when Trump demanded that Microsoft fire Lisa Monaco, its recently appointed president of global affairs, because she was second in command of Biden’s Justice Department and oversaw Trump’s prosecution for misusing classified documents and trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Microsoft refused. 

The company seemed more than ever like the tech world’s conscience.

Microsoft’s big data deals with ICE

But an investigation published a week ago by the UK’s The Guardian and its partners +972 Magazine and Local Call  reported that ICE is storing vast amounts of data on Microsoft’s Azure cloud storage and using Microsoft AI tools to search and analyze that data. It found ICE is also using many of Microsoft’s productivity tools and may be running its own tools and systems on Microsoft servers.  

The investigation discovered that the amount of data ICE stores on Microsoft’s cloud more than tripled in just a few months, from 400 terabytes to 1,400 terabytes between July 2025 and January 2026. Why the massive increase? Because Congress increased ICE’s budget in July by $75 billion, making it the country’s highest-funded US law enforcement body. ICE promptly went on a tech spending spree, in part to increase its surveillance capabilities.

The Guardian reports on the vast reach of that surveillance: “ICE, which has been likened to a domestic surveillance agency, enjoys access to vast troves of data on people living in the US. It has a growing arsenal of surveillance technology, including facial recognition apps, phone location databases, drones and invasive spyware.”

The Guardian wasn’t able to discover whether ICE is using Microsoft’s cloud services for surveillance: “It’s unclear from the files whether ICE is using Azure to store or analyze information collected through any of its surveillance or intelligence gathering activities, or whether the cloud platform supports other functions, such as the running of detention centers or deportation flights.” The +972 article, though, claims that ICE is “making use of AI tools that search and analyze images and videos” on the data stored on the Microsoft cloud.

When questioned by The Guardian, a Microsoft spokesperson didn’t give specific details about how the company’s technologies are being used by ICE, but stressed that Microsoft’s policies “do not allow our technology to be used for the mass surveillance of civilians, and we do not believe ICE is engaged in such activity.”

Note the vagueness of the answer, that the company doesn’t “believe” ICE is using Microsoft technology for mass surveillance. So apparently, it doesn’t know — and likely doesn’t want to know, because then it would feel forced to take action of some kind.

It’s time for Microsoft to pull the plug on ICE

Whether the data is being used for surveillance is beside the point. 

Surveillance is only one of ICE’s many sins. Its masked, heavily armed agents kidnap people in the full light of day; it murders people merely because they protest the agency’s actions; it arrests thousands of immigrants with no criminal records — including many who are in the US legally; it breaks into people’s houses without legal warrants; it’s building a massive nationwide detention system; and it has essentially put a number of US cities under martial law. 

And Microsoft technology helps run ICE, whether or not it also helps the agency with surveillance. 

Last September, Microsoft revoked the Israeli army’s access to the company’s Azure cloud storage because the army was using it for mass surveillance in Palestine. So the company does have a history of ending deals with government agencies for moral reasons.

It’s time for Microsoft to pull the plug on all its deals with ICE, which is now compromised from top to bottom. Microsoft can’t set itself up to be the conscience of the tech industry if it helps the agency in any way. 

Two weeks ago, before the relationship between Microsoft and ICE came to light, excoriated Apple and its CEO for bowing down to Trump, and applauded Microsoft for standing up to him. If the ICE deal had been public at the time, I would never have held up Microsoft and Nadella as shining beacons of morality.