this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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Google 'playing with fire' by acquiring Israeli company founded by Unit 8200 veterans (www.middleeasteye.net)
submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
22 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Google employees and human rights groups have raised concerns about the tech giant’s purchase of an Israeli start-up in an unprecedented $32bn deal.

Google on Tuesday announced the all-cash acquisition of Wiz, an Israeli cloud security firm which was founded by former members of Unit 8200, an elite Israeli army cyber-espionage and surveillance unit.

The deal comes with the Google already facing internal and external pressure over its controversial Project Nimbus contract, through which along with Amazon it provides cloud computing and AI services to the Israeli government and military.

A spokesperson for No Tech for Apartheid, a coalition of Google and Amazon workers campaigning against the companies' involvement with Israel, said Google was "playing with fire" by buying Wiz.

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[–] [email protected] -4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Nothing you wrote contradicts the observation that it’s easier to apply for a job and get it than to construct a full blown company which needs to be acquired. If there are already 99 ‘spies’ at Google, there’s hardly need for such elaborate schemes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

The IDF soldiers do not have to apply for Google and pass the Google application entrance exam.

Also the acquisition can happen for a far higher amount than the company's true worth. Thus sending a lot of Google money to Israel.

It is very doubtable Wiz is worth what Google is paying.

Similar to how AIPAC works, the IDF spies goal is not to make money, but to invest other people's money into Israel.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Everything you’re describing is further speculation and unfalsifiable statements for events which already have a simpler explanation. That’s a tell-tale sign of a conspiracy theory.

Google buying the company as some kind of plot to get spies into Google requires more assumptions than Google buying the company for the technology (as it has done with plethora of other companies). If Google is somehow complicit in it, they could just hire those people directly. And if it’s all covert operation, Israel is capable of training and coaching their spies to pass Google’s interviews. Google interviews aren’t trivial, but it’s also not some super-elite company which hires only the top 0.01% of software engineers.

If you want to convince me otherwise, you need to demonstrate why your explanation is more likely than the obvious one.