Microsoft faces backlash as US immigration agency uses Azure data, sparking controversy.

Microsoft’s cloud‑engineers have been quietly expanding ICE’s data footprint, and the numbers now look alarming. Leaked internal documents obtained by Torben Kopp show that ICE’s Azure storage swelled from roughly 400 TB in July 2025 to almost 1,400 TB by January 2026 – a more‑than‑three‑fold jump in just six months. The surge isn’t limited to raw files; the agency is also tapping Azure’s AI‑powered video‑analysis and image‑recognition services, which can flag faces, emotions and text across massive datasets. Kopp’s report suggests the cloud is being used for “identification and tracking of individuals,” a capability that far exceeds routine immigration paperwork.

Microsoft has pushed back hard. In a statement the company said its policies “strictly prohibit the use of Azure for mass surveillance of civilians” and that it “does not believe ICE is conducting such activities.” The firm frames the partnership as a set of productivity tools and internal‑communication services, not a surveillance platform. Yet the sheer volume of data and the deployment of advanced AI models raise doubts among civil‑rights groups, who argue that the infrastructure itself becomes a de‑facto surveillance engine once it can process facial‑recognition at scale.

The controversy has spilled beyond the courtroom into the halls of Microsoft’s own campuses. Employees, citing the leaked figures, have organized petitions demanding greater transparency around government contracts and stricter ethical safeguards. According to Kopp, “the sheer amount of stored information and the use of AI for image analysis suggest the technological base plays a central role in identifying and pursuing persons.” Critics contend that even if ICE’s stated purpose is “productivity,” the tools it accesses can be repurposed for enforcement actions, blurring the line between administrative support and coercive monitoring.

Policy makers are now being asked to draw clearer lines. Kopp notes that Microsoft “presses for clear legislative frameworks,” but lawmakers are under pressure from advocacy groups to impose concrete limits on how federal agencies may employ commercial cloud services for law‑enforcement functions. The Register’s recent coverage of government procurement trends underscores how low‑bid contracts can funnel massive capabilities to agencies without sufficient oversight, a pattern that appears to be repeating with Azure.

What remains to be seen is whether the backlash will force a recalibration of the tech‑government relationship. The episode illustrates how “technical platforms are never neutral once they enter high‑sensitivity political arenas,” as Kopp writes. As the debate sharpens, the industry watches to see if new ethical guardrails will emerge or if the status quo—cloud power paired with expansive data grabs—will persist, redefining the balance between security and privacy in the digital age.