When Google and Amazon signed a $1.2 billion cloud deal with Israel in 2021, they reportedly agreed to a bizarre condition — a secret “winking mechanism.”
The code, hidden in financial transactions, would quietly alert Israel whenever its data was handed over to foreign authorities. Sounds like a spy movie, right?
According to leaked documents seen by The Guardian, Israel demanded this covert system.
It was to ensure it never lost control of sensitive government or military data stored on foreign servers.
Here’s how it worked: if the companies were forced by, say, US courts to share Israeli data, they’d send a small payment to Israel.
Cloud Access Controversy
The amount would match the foreign country’s dialing code.
A wink disguised as a bank transfer.
The deal, called Project Nimbus, bars Google and Amazon from cutting off Israel’s cloud access.
This applies even if the tech is used in military operations or violates company ethics policies.
Officials feared the firms could face pressure from human rights groups over Israel’s actions in Gaza or the West Bank.
Both companies deny breaking laws, but experts say the arrangement treads a fine line.
“It’s clever—but risky,” one former US security official said. In the age of cloud wars and geopolitics.
It seems even data needs its own diplomacy.
