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Microsoft employees slam $480M HoloLens military contract, refuse to create tech for 'warfare and
Fox News ^ | February 24, 2019 | Christopher Carbone

Posted on 02/24/2019 12:37:14 PM PST by lowbridge

More than 150 Microsoft employees signed a letter demanding the tech giant cancel a $480 million contract to build a HoloLens for the Pentagon, saying they "refuse to create technology for warfare and oppression."

"We are alarmed that Microsoft is working to provide weapons technology to the U.S. military, helping one country's government 'increase lethality' using tools we built. We did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used," the letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith, which was posted to Twitter, states.

The employees represent the latest big tech backlash, coming from within Silicon Valley itself, as workers demand more of a say over how tech products are used and how a range of groups are treated internally.

Back in November, according to the Microsoft employees, the company awarded a major contractto the U.S. Army with the stated objective to "rapidly develop, test, and manufacture a single platform that soldiers can use to fight, rehearse, and train that provides increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness necessary to achieve overmatch against our current and future adversaries."

The workers demand that Microsoft cancel the contract, cease developing any and all weapons technologies, draft a public-facing policy around the acceptable use of such technology, and appoint an independent, external ethics review board with the power to enforce compliance.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: hololens; microsoft; military
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To: IronJack

Unfortunately you aren’t Microsoft.


61 posted on 02/24/2019 4:10:52 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (May Jesus Christ be praised.)
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To: lowbridge

....that’s what ya get with H1B visa’s and pay them $15 an hour...betcha over half the employees are from India and Pakistan....


62 posted on 02/24/2019 4:35:22 PM PST by Doogle (( USAF.68-73....8th TFW Ubon Thailand....never store a threat you should have eliminated)))
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To: lowbridge

Fire them. Hire replacements.


63 posted on 02/24/2019 4:45:40 PM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Thebaddog

Skype For Business has done some weird things too.

I confounded MS support.

Come to find out that UAC was a culprit. The in house developer had the idea.


64 posted on 02/24/2019 4:47:29 PM PST by wally_bert (You're bringing The Monk down, man!)
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To: TheZMan

You demand a say in how your work is used and I demand you don’t since you agreed to be hired to work “for” MS. Interesting how it sounds like Pelosi when she said on her latest overseas trip that she has as much power as the President. I am all for having her tried for treason and let’s see how much power she has then after she is convicted. .

Let us not forget 18 U.S. Code squiggly 2385: Advocating overthrow of Government. It is worth reading and then fitting the various Democrats who are creating dissention with Pres Trump into the code. It is rather easily done, in my opinion.


65 posted on 02/24/2019 5:45:20 PM PST by Bodega (we are developing less and less common sense...world wide)
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To: bigbob

TO: All 150 or more of you employees.
FROM: Management.
RE: Your objections.

Pack your shit and hit the road.
YOUR ALL F#CKING FIRED!

Sincerely: The Owners and Management.


66 posted on 02/24/2019 7:19:08 PM PST by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: TexasGator

Buddies in China tapping their foreheads with index finger.

“WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID”?


67 posted on 02/24/2019 7:22:10 PM PST by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: lowbridge

Any kind of computer, or tablet or smartphone, or software by MS, can be used by the military, to help them in warfare.

So, will ALL of those anti-military MS employees ask that MS end its contracts with the military, and even the government which runs that military?

Whatever contracts MS, or Google or Apple or any company decide to end because the equipment and/or software can be applied to warfare, should also be accompanied by the thousands, perhaps millions, of layoffs that result from those cancellations.

Let’s see how many of them are willing to accept their own layoffs mandated by their own idiocy.


68 posted on 02/24/2019 7:39:13 PM PST by adorno
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To: 5th MEB

You forgot the “best wishes in your future endeavors”, salt to cure the wound.


69 posted on 02/24/2019 7:44:07 PM PST by kublia khan (Absolute war brings total victory)
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To: lowbridge

Maybe they could work on games, like World of WarCraft...or...
Russia is looking for a few good hackers.


70 posted on 02/24/2019 7:53:02 PM PST by Thar U. Havit
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To: NorseViking

Or H1B Indians...


71 posted on 02/24/2019 7:55:45 PM PST by Starcitizen
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To: lowbridge

Then they ought to stop working on operating Systems too - much of our warfighting is enhanced by the existence of computers and networking and Microsoft has a hugh and series portion of that market....


72 posted on 02/25/2019 3:13:48 AM PST by trebb (Don't howl about illegal leeches while not donating to FR - it's hypocritical.)
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To: DesertRhino

Fire their asses. And by the way, I noticed they didn’t have any big ethical problems creating ways for the CIA and NSA to snoop in on American citizens.

Yes. Then cross reference the names of the anti American twits on the petition and haul them up on charges of violating U.S. citizens Constitutional right to privacy. Ban them from working on any government contract and put them on the “No fly” list.


73 posted on 02/25/2019 1:25:33 PM PST by spudville
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