LONDON: Tech giants Google and Amazon agreed to a secret coding system designed to alert Israeli authorities when the companies were compelled by foreign courts to hand over Israeli data, a report by The Guardian has revealed.
The joint investigation, conducted with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, highlights how a $1.2 billion cloud-computing deal in 2021 (known as Project Nimbus) between Israeli government and the tech firms had an “unusual demand”, i.e., agree to use a secret code as part of an arrangement that would become known as the “winking mechanism”.
The revelations centre on Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud-computing contract signed in 2021 between Israel and the two technology firms.
The deal provided Israel’s government and military with access to advanced cloud, artificial intelligence, and data processing technologies.
According to the investigation, the agreement included an “unusual demand” from Israeli officials: that Google and Amazon use a covert “winking mechanism” to bypass gag orders imposed by foreign courts.
Secret ‘winking mechanism’ to signal data transfers
Documents from Israel’s finance ministry, cited by The Guardian, describe a system where Google and Amazon would send coded payments to the Israeli government whenever they were forced to disclose Israeli data to foreign authorities.
The payments—labelled as “special compensation”—were to be made within 24 hours of the data transfer and corresponded to the telephone dialling code of the requesting country.
For example, if data was shared with the United States (+1), the companies were required to send 1,000 shekels (approximately $260); if to Italy (+39), 3,900 shekels.
If the companies were prohibited even from indicating which country had received the data, they were required to make a 100,000-shekel ($30,000) payment to the Israeli government as a signal.
According to the report, Israel insisted on this mechanism to ensure it would not lose control over its sensitive information if law enforcement or intelligence agencies abroad demanded access.
Fears over foreign oversight and activist pressure
The Guardian reported that Israeli officials expressed deep concern that data stored in global cloud systems could be exposed to foreign legal scrutiny or sanctions.
The documents also reveal Israel’s fear that global human rights organisations might pressure Google or Amazon—or pursue court orders—to suspend or restrict cloud services to Israeli agencies accused of abuses in Gaza or the West Bank.
In response, Israeli authorities reportedly inserted clauses into the Nimbus contract preventing Google or Amazon from restricting or revoking access to cloud services “under any circumstances,” including on grounds of human rights violations or changes in company policy.
An Israeli official cited by The Guardian confirmed that “there can be no restrictions” on the type of data moved into the cloud, including sensitive military or intelligence information.
“Israel is entitled to migrate to the cloud or generate in the cloud any content data they wish,” the document stated.
Cloud providers bound by secret contract
The Israeli finance ministry defended the contract, saying Google and Amazon were “bound by stringent contractual obligations that safeguard Israel’s vital interests”.
A ministry spokesperson told The Guardian that the agreements were confidential and added, “We will not legitimise the article’s claims by disclosing private commercial terms.”
Google and Amazon have not yet publicly commented on the investigation. However, both companies have faced internal dissent over the Nimbus deal, with employees staging protests in the United States last year, demanding that the firms withdraw from projects enabling Israeli military operations.
Context of big tech’s dealings with Israel
The revelations come amid growing scrutiny of global tech companies’ cooperation with Israeli institutions during the ongoing Gaza conflict, which the United Nations and several human rights groups have described as involving “war crimes” or “genocide.”
Earlier this year, Microsoft disabled certain cloud and AI services used by a unit within Israel’s Ministry of Defence after internal reviews found evidence linking them to surveillance operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Under the Nimbus agreement, however, such actions by Google or Amazon would reportedly be considered “discriminatory” and could trigger financial penalties and legal consequences for breach of contract.
The Guardian investigation underscores the degree to which the Nimbus project has remained opaque, even within the companies involved.
