Overview
- Leaked documents reported by The Guardian allege Project Nimbus included a 'winking mechanism' requiring Google and Amazon to notify Israel via coded shekel payments when complying with foreign legal requests for Israeli data.
- The reported codes mirror country dialing prefixes, such that a request from the United States would trigger a 1,000‑shekel payment and one from Italy would trigger 3,900 shekels.
- The report describes a 100,000‑shekel payment as a failsafe signal when gag orders prohibit standard notification.
- An Amazon spokesperson told Engadget the company has a rigorous process for lawful data requests and denied any underhanded workarounds or mechanisms to circumvent confidentiality obligations.
- Engadget said Google and the Israeli government had not responded to requests for comment, and the report also claims Microsoft lost the Nimbus bid in part after declining some proposed terms.