Google’s $32B deal with Wiz hands user data to a team with deep military roots, prompting concerns over privacy, AI security, and foreign influence.

Google recently announced it would acquire Israeli-American cloud security firm Wiz for $32 billion. The price tag — 65 times Wiz’s annual revenue — has raised eyebrows and further solidified the close relationship between Google and the Israeli military.

Wiz was established only five years ago, and all four co-founders — Yinon Costica, Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik — were leaders in Israel’s elite military intelligence unit, Unit 8200. Like many Israeli tech companies, Wiz is a direct outgrowth of the military intelligence outfit. A recent study found that almost fifty of its current employees are Unit 8200 veterans.

Unit 8200 also spies on Americans. Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency regularly shared the data and communications of U.S. citizens with the Israeli intelligence group. “I think that’s amazing…It’s one of the biggest abuses we’ve seen,” he said.

For the Israeli government, the utility of these private spying firms filled with former IDF intelligence figures is that it allows it some measure of plausible deniability when confronted with spying attacks.

Google has invested heavily in Israel, first opening offices there in 2006. Longtime CEO Eric Schmidt is known to be a vocal supporter of the controversial state. In a 2012 meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he declared that “the decision to invest in Israel was one of the best that Google has ever made.”

  • Botzo@lemmy.world
    109·
    20 hours ago

    The last time this was posted it didn’t have the link and was taken down.

    This source has a seriously questionable objective to say the least.

    I’m cool with critique of this acquisition, but I’d love to see it verified by a more reputable source.

    • Grapho@lemmy.ml
      82·
      14 hours ago

      Libs start reading the cited sources instead of asking the factuality police challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
      113·
      19 hours ago

      In 2022, Robert Scheer reported that Google AdSense informed publishers, including MintPress News, that, “Due to the war in Ukraine, we will pause monetization of content that exploits, dismisses, or condones the war.” According to Scheer, these restrictions included “any pieces that question the NATO narrative on Ukraine into the content it describes”.

      They questioned with the NATO narrative? How dare they! Next thing you know they are providing well-sourced information and debunking poorly sourced claims.

      I am glad that your Wikipedia page quoting USAID funded media outlets is saying that Mintpress is a scam. This completely impartial news helped me wake up to my brainwashing of not blindly believing US state media.

      Next time I read a MintPress article I will be sure to not check their sources to make up my own mind. But instead brand them unreliable because they question the NATO narrative. Thank you Lemmy.World user! I love the IDF and unit8200 they are awesome!

      • Botzo@lemmy.world
        48·
        18 hours ago

        Ah yes, the cherry-pick and ad hominem.

        The previous several paragraphs were more concerning.

        For example:

        MintPress News said it was a for-profit “regular news organization,” with an initial business plan where advertising revenues would exceed costs after three years.[12] MintPress’s anonymous investors were originally intended to fund MintPress operations until 2015.[2] The editor had investors, who Muhawesh claimed were “retired businesspeople”, but she would not name them, a situation MinnPost said was “unfortunate for a journalism operation fighting alongside people seeking transparency. The site’s ‘About Us’ page is similarly skinny.”[12]

        The irony of your insinuating I don’t check my sources when my comment is about precisely that is both amusing and disheartening. Shouldn’t we all exercise this caution?

        This seems like good reporting, and there is literally 0 coverage from this angle elsewhere that I could find.

        For what it’s worth, I’ve been to Palestine and inevitably Israel. I have lobbied my congressional representatives to cease support for Israel. I voted “ceasefire” in the Democratic primary. But because I happen to think the source you chose is questionable and come from a different instance, I must support the apartheid regime.

        And indeed I chose .world in the reddit API migration when .ml was actively encouraging sign ups on other instances, please forgive my terrible oversight.

        I hope you have a better day.

        • Grapho@lemmy.ml
          21·
          11 hours ago

          Ah, of course your honor, the cherry picked example of a literal smoking gun you found in my hand