What is Militarisation of Tech?

Governments are rapidly militarising our societies. They are already increasing military spending, undermining civil rights protections, and reducing social protection programmes. Governments already depend on the private sector for delivering public services, through public-private partnerships.

Now they are looking to the tech industry to design the next generation battlefield. As new technologies are at the core of this shift, industry is keenly adapting.

Big Tech firms are militarising, expanding from surveillance capitalism by taking on military contracts. Their business models exploited people’s data; and now their tools are helping governments wage war.

A relatively new ‘defence tech’ industry is emerging to develop new tools for new modes of warfare. Their business models are stretching away from the battle fields, however, to borders, policing, and social programmes.

Data is core to these shifts. Advanced technologies automate the collection and processing of data on people, communities, and locations. Personal data feeds new systems used to identify, target, and control populations. These technologies will be adapted for surveillance purposes and used in our town squares [impacting our daily lives](https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5669/blurring-line-how-militarisation-tech-reshaping-our-town-squares-introduction).

When we speak of the Militarisation of Tech, we are referring to these dynamics.

This is the Militarisation of Tech

1. Conflict Innovating in Tech and Data

Governments are deploying data-intensive systems for military purposes. They collect vast amount of data, ranging from metadata (including traffic data, subscriber and location data), biometric data, and social media data. This data can be used to detect behavioural patterns and human interactions, to monitor and identify activities that deviate from the “norm”, to establish targets.

As examples, social media intelligence (SOCMINT) is being employed for military data gathering purposes from Mexico, where the military monitors criticism of the armed forces on social media, to Israel, where Palestinians are being arrested on the basis of their social media posts, and to Afghanistan, where location tracking and object identification using video feeds led to a ‘blunder’ drone strike that erroneously targeted and killed civilians, including children.

Automation and artificial intelligence tools are also becoming commonplace technologies used in military operations. These are used in decision support software, target identification, drone and satellite analysis of conflict zones, prediction of resource needs, and attack by lethal autonomous weapons. As an example, the Israeli military has been using Lavender, an AI system that analyses mass surveillance data to identify ‘incriminating features’ to identify and target suspected Hamas militants. However, Lavender has erroneously marked people as targets who have no or very limited connection to Hamas militants, killing thousands of civilian Palestinians.

The deployment of new data-intensive systems during war raises serious concerns for victims of conflict as well as civilians in peaceful contexts. The vast collection of data on people about their daily lives is then used to perpetrate violence. This increased surveillance leads to faulty decision making, and other risks of bias, aggressive targeting, and discrimination.

2. Non-Defence Tech Companies are Entering the Defence Sector

Big Tech companies as well as start-ups who initially developed commercial and civilian infrastructure technologies are entering the defence sector. Many in the process are taking back previous promises to not build AI for surveillance or war-related purposes.

For example, in 2025, Google updated its ethical guidelines by removing previous promises to not pursue ‘weapons, surveillance, and technologies that can cause or are likely to cause overall harm’.

Other reports show that Microsoft and Google both deepened ties with Israel, despite the ongoing violence in Gaza. Meta also announced in November 2024 that it would permit use of their AI for national security.

The morphing of Big Tech into companies aligned with national governments turns them into defence contractors, and their tools into military technologies.

Smaller tech companies and venture capital-backed startups too have been merging into the defence sector. The California-based tech start up Skydio, receiving significant venture capital investments, launched R1 autonomous drone in 2018 for consumer use. Skydio has since moved from the consumer market to the military sector. It is now the largest US drone maker, whose dual-use tech is developed for both military and civilian purposes.

Even shifts from civilian law enforcement to conflict situations bring significant differences in uses. In 2022, Clearview AI also offered its facial recognition technology for free use by the Ukrainian defence ministry. Until then, it sold to law enforcement authorities. The company reportedly offered free access to the facial recognition technology, that includes more than 2bn images from Russian social media service VKtontakte, to ‘potentially vet people of interest at checkpoints’. According to Reuters, the firm said the tech could also be used to uncover Russian operatives, debunk false social media posts related to the war, combat misinformation, identify the dead, and reunite refugees with their families.

The use of data harvested by Big Tech and other companies raises questions of corporate responsibility and accountability in conflict. It also increases the power of these tech companies, leading to a lack of separation in regulation between defence and non-defence production of tech.

3. Technology Deployed by the Military Is Transferred to Law Enforcement and Public Services

Conflict zones are being used as experimental grounds to test the latest military and surveillance technologies, which are then not only sold to other militaries, but also turned into tools used in law enforcement.

There are different gradations of military technology bleeding into law enforcement: military equipment adapted and used for law enforcement; military grade equipment used by law enforcement without context adaptation; and the active involvement of the military in law enforcement operations.

This means that the defence industry is entering civilian contracting and Tech companies are offering their services to government security and intelligence agencies, marketing their products as “battle-tested”. Israel has for years been using the Occupied Palestinian Territories as testing grounds — in the name of counter-terrorism and national security — for new defence and surveillance technologies to be showcased to international investors and clients.

BAE systems, Europe’s largest defence contractor, allegedly sold a sophisticated cyber-surveillance system used for decryption and internet-traffic interception to the Algerian government in 2022. The company has reportedly also sold mass surveillance tech to the Moroccan government.

We’ve additionally observed how Palantir — a big data analytics firm and the first ‘defence tech’ unicorn — works across the boundaries, with contracts, systems and services covering military, migrant surveillance, and predictive policing programmes. Beyond law enforcement, the same company also worked with humanitarian organisations and health agencies. For instance the UK government granted Palantir access to unprecedented quantities of NHS patient data for processing and analysis in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Technologies developed for conflict are designed to exploit data and provide dominance. Spending and investing in these firms to deploy their tools and knowledge into the civilian sphere risks bringing those imperatives and capacities to our social services.

4. Technology Used in Conflict Is Being Adapted for Commercial Use

Conflict zones are additionally used as experimental grounds for defence technologies that are then turned into commercial products.

This means that technologies that are originally employed in conflict situations are not only repurposed for law enforcement use, but also for private, commercial use, and vice versa.

We saw an example of this in 2017 when Cambridge Analytica - originally established as a subsidiary of a private intelligence company active in military arenas - was outed for having harvested personal data from the Facebook profiles of over 80 million users without their knowledge. At PI we had previously tracked Cambridge Analytica being used in Kenya’s 2017 Election. Its owner, the now-defunct SCL Group, had described itself as providing “data, analytics and strategy to governments and military organisations worldwide”, and “conducted behavioral change programs in over 60 countries & have been formally recognized for our work in defense & social change.” Cambridge Analytica was later linked to the Trump 2016 and Brexit campaigns. Now the U.S. Special Operations Command is exploring the use of machine learning to ‘influence foreign target audiences’ and ‘supress dissenting arguments’.

Moreover, in 2021 we looked into how the Israeli government was using facial recognition technologies for its identification, checkpoint, and video surveillance systems. The software for the cameras at the access control systems were reportedly provided by AnyVision Interactive Technologies, an Israeli startup that has marketed itself as a “field tested” company. Its facial recognition and surveillance software has been used in schools and hospitals and reportedly by public entities such as the city of Nice and security companies like G4S. AnyVision rebranded as Oosto, and in 2025 was acquired by Metropolis, an AI-powered parking platform.

Ultimately, there seems to be a lack of regulation concerning how data and tech are used, whether in war or peace. For example, Airbus, one of the world’s largest aerospace companies, produces dual-use technologies, including earth imagery satellites, such as Pléiades. One emerging use of commercial satellite data, including that of Airbus, is in human rights monitoring. For instance, in 2024 satellite data was used for a Human Rights Watch report into the destruction of Rohingya villages in Myanmar. However, such data can also used for distinctly non-humanitarian ends. The imagery from these satellites is available to consumers upon request via Airbus. In 2024, reports emerged indicating that front companies operated by the Russian state regularly purchased Pléiades satellite imagery, used to attack Ukrainian critical infrastructure.

Commercial application of military tools spreads oppressive technologies into our daily lives, and eases the unethical use of data. The blurring of lines between the use of commercial and military data has serious implications for our right to privacy and our societies.

This Is The Era of Militarisation of Tech

Data-intensive systems are being employed during contexts of conflict, which has serious implications for privacy and beyond. It also leads to the maximisation of targets without much human oversight, and risks increased surveillance and discrimination. In the process, technology companies are entering the defence sector, which increases their power and raises questions of accountability in conflict.

In parallel, technology deployed by the military is being transferred to law enforcement and public services, which allows the military to dominate civic spaces/public infrastructures. Ultimately, technology used in conflict is being adapted for commercial use and vice versa, blurring the line between military and commercial data.

The next wave of Militarisation of Tech is driving innovation and will generate new tools of oppression by feeding off people’s data.

This is the era of Militarisation of Tech and we need to put a stop to it.