Google and Amazon’s Israeli cloud contracts reportedly require them to be legally binding orders
Chalk this up to “the most brilliant (allegedly) legalistic about this on Tony Soprano’s part.” Wednesday, Caretaker It published a report with the name “Whinking Mechanism” regarding the Israeli Cloud contracts with Amazon and Google. A statement from the 2021 Nimbus project is said to require US companies to send coded messages to Israel. According to the report, whenever Google or Amazon secretly comply with Israel’s legal request for Israeli data, they are asked to send money to Israel. The dollar value indicates which country issued the request.
The coding system reportedly includes country dialing prefixes. For example, if Google or Amazon gave Israel data to the US (Dial Code +1), they would send 1,000 shekels. Italy (code +39), they would send 3,900 shekels. 100,000 shekels.
Caretaker Said Microsoft, whose bid for the Nimbus contract was lost in part because it refused to accept some of Israel’s terms.
In a statement to introduce Engedget, an Amazon spokesperson emphasized customer privacy. “We respect the privacy of our customers, and we do not discuss our relationship without their permission, even if they are visible in their work,” they wrote.
An Amazon spokesperson denied that the company has any underground operations. “We have a strong global process for responding to legal and binding orders for requests related to customer data,” it said. “[Amazon Web Services] We carefully review each application to check for any non-disclosure obligations, and maintain confidentiality in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. While AWS does not disclose customer information to respond to government requests unless absolutely necessary to do so, we recognize the legitimate needs of law enforcement agencies to prevent serious crime. We do not have procedures in place to avoid our confidentiality obligations in legally binding orders. “
Google also denied any wrongdoing. “The allegations in this call are false, and imply that we were somehow involved in an illegal, unconscionable activity,” said a company spokesperson. “As is common in public sector contracts, the RFP does not reflect the final contract. The idea that we could have triggered our legal obligations to the US government as a US company, or to any other country, is categorical.”
“We’ve been very clear about the Nimbus contract, what it covers, and the terms of service and the acceptable use policy that governs it,” a Google spokesperson said. “Nothing has changed. This seems to be another attempt to lie.”
We have also reached out to the Israeli government for a statement, and will update this story when we hear back. Caretaker’The full S report goes into more detail about the alleged abuse.
Update, October 29, 2025, 6:29 PM ET: This story is being updated to include a statement from a Google spokesperson.
