One of the largest IT companies in the world. It provides technologies to the Israeli military and operates Israel’s discriminatory population registry.
International Business Machines Corp (IBM), headquartered in Armonk, N.Y., is a multinational technology company that specializes in software, artificial intelligence (AI) and information technology (IT) infrastructure, and technology consulting services. As of August 2024, it is one of the largest tech companies in the world.
IBM designed and operates the central database—called “Eitan”—of Israel’s Population, Immigration, and Borders Authority (PIBA). This database’s main component is Israel’s biometric population registry, which records personal data—including the ethnic and religious identities—of both citizens and non-citizens within Israel and the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories. This data is also recorded on government-issued ID cards, which, by law, all residents must carry.
The information stored in PIBA’s database is routinely used by Israel to discriminate among the different population groups under its control: Jewish citizens of Israel, including those living in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories; Palestinian citizens of Israel; Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem; Palestinians living under Israel’s military rule in the occupied West Bank; Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority; and Palestinian residents of the blockaded Gaza Strip. The database and the ID system it powers facilitates the fragmentation of Palestinian society; determines the legal jurisdiction that Palestinians fall under (civilian versus military law); and restricts Palestinians’ participation in the political system, as well as where they can live, work, and travel; who they can marry; and their access to government services. Since the database includes information about the population of the Gaza Strip, including individuals’ addresses, it may also allow the Israeli military to target Palestinians in Gaza.
According to Who Profits, IBM’s system also documents all crossings and main Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank, including the Erez Crossing between Israel and Gaza and the Allenby Bridge Crossing between Israel and Jordan. Palestinians under Israel’s military occupation in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip are only permitted to leave or enter the country through the Allenby Bridge Crossing.
IBM won a $240 million contract to design and operate the Eitan system in 2017. This system replaced a previous system called the Aviv system, designed and operated by HP and later operated by DXC Technology and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The contract includes the design, management, maintenance, and operation of the system. IBM assumed full responsibility for Israel’s population registry in 2019.
In addition, IBM subsidiary Red Hat has provided technologies to multiple units of the Israeli military, the main government agency responsible for administering the illegal military occupation of the Palestinian territory and the blockade of the Gaza Strip. For example, the Israeli uses Red Hat’s OpenShift software for Mamram, its central computing system. In 2017, the company collaborated with the Israeli military to develop its “operational internet,” a cloud-based computerized network designed to increase the military’s lethality and effectiveness. This project was reportedly worth several millions of dollars.
While the system was developed in-house by the Israeli military’s Digital Transformation Administration, IBM plays a significant role in the project, with company employees working on it alongside military officials on updates and upgrades. Israeli military officers have described Red Hat as a “business partner, and company executives have similarly described the Israeli military as their “partner” and “leading customer” and expressed “great pride” in enhancing the military’s capabilities.
Deportations and Border Militarization in the US - Past Activities
IBM had provided technologies to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for digital cloud services, the modernization of automated systems, the migration of information from one CBP system to another, and more. IBM was highlighted as being one of 14 “giants in the border security business” from 2006-2018.
Between 2009 and 2014, IBM developed software in support of ICE’s “Automated Threat Prioritization” system, part of the agency’s “Secure Communities” deportation program. The system, for which IBM received $22.5 million, was designed to automate ICE’s decision-making processes. It collected information about immigrants’ criminal histories from federal, state, and local law enforcement in order to help ICE identify who to deport. For those who are incarcerated, IBM’s system identified their release date and alerts ICE to deport them.
The U.S. government discontinued the “Secure Communities” program in 2014, reinstated it in 2017, and canceled it again in 2021. We have no current information about IBM’s involvement in these systems.
(Not) Exiting the Facial Recognition Industry
Until 2020, IBM was one of the leading companies developing facial recognition technologies for U.S. law enforcement. In 2010, the company developed AI search features for the New York Police Department by using the city’s closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage. The system was used by police to track people by hair color, facial hair, and skin tone, and was widely criticized for its gaps in accuracy according to race and gender.
In 2020, amidst mass protests in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, IBM declared that it would exit the facial recognition industry. In a public letter sent to the U.S. Congress by the company’s CEO, IBM stated that it would no longer provide “general purpose” facial recognition or evaluation software. The company stated that it “firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms,” or any other purpose that is inconsistent with the company’s values.
IBM was the first large high-tech company to make such a statement following mounting public pressure on tech companies to divest from mass surveillance projects that disproportionately impact communities of color. Within a few days of IBM’s announcement, Amazon and Microsoft, both of which are also major providers of facial recognition technology, issued public statements about restricting their services.
Despite its claims about exiting the facial recognition industry, in 2023 IBM signed a $69.8 million contract with the U.K. government for the development of a national biometrics platform that includes a facial recognition function for immigration and law enforcement officials. A contract notice for the system outlines how it would involve facial recognition for immigration purposes and the delivery of a “facial matching for law enforcement use-case.” According to an investigative report by The Verge, the platform will allow photos of people to be matched against images stored on a database, thereby supporting police and immigration authorities in “identifying suspects.”
While the company has claimed that its work on the contract does not conflict with its 2020 commitments, human rights advocates say that this is not the case and that the company must “cease its sale, and honor [its] earlier statements to sunset these tools, even and especially in the context of law and immigration enforcement where the rights implications are compounding.”