Digital Audit: Netflix

Netflix - Digital Audit: Domain Findings

Enterprise Technology Stack & Vendor Relationships

No public evidence identified of a licensing, subscription, or integration relationship between Netflix and Israeli-origin enterprise/cybersecurity vendors including Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk, NICE, Verint, or Claroty, based on review of Netflix’s SEC filings, its engineering blog, vendor press materials, and general trade press ¹²³. Netflix’s SEC disclosures state consistently that the company “runs the vast majority of [its] computing on AWS” and identifies dependence on Amazon Web Services as a material risk factor, establishing AWS (U.S.-headquartered) as Netflix’s core infrastructure vendor ¹². This is contextually relevant because AWS is also a prime contractor, alongside Google, for the Israeli government’s Project Nimbus cloud-migration programme, though this is a vendor-side fact about AWS rather than a direct Netflix engagement ⁴⁵. No public evidence identified of named systems integrators or IT-outsourcing consultancies engaged by Netflix for enterprise technology programmes, nor of any such integrator mandating Israeli-origin technology in Netflix’s stack ¹².

Surveillance, Biometrics & Retail Technology

No public evidence identified of Netflix use of facial recognition, biometrics, gait analysis, or Israeli-founded surveillance/retail-technology vendors such as Trigo, BriefCam, AnyVision/Oosto, or Trax, consistent with Netflix having no physical retail footprint of the kind these products serve. Netflix’s own published fraud-detection methodology, described on the Netflix Technology Blog, relies on behavioral and statistical machine-learning signals for account-sharing and fraud detection, with no named third-party biometric vendor identified, Israeli or otherwise ³. No public evidence identified of Israeli-origin predictive-policing, sentiment-analysis, social-media-monitoring, or workforce-surveillance tools used by Netflix. No public evidence identified of indirect delivery of such technologies to Netflix via managed security services or bundled third-party suites.

Cloud Infrastructure, Data Residency & Sovereign Cloud Participation

No public evidence identified that Netflix itself operates, leases, or co-locates data-centre infrastructure inside Israel; Netflix’s confirmed Israel-facing digital infrastructure consists of Open Connect content-delivery appliances embedded within local internet service provider networks rather than Netflix-operated facilities ⁶⁷⁸. Netflix’s principal cloud provider, Amazon Web Services, opened an AWS Israel (Tel Aviv) Region on 1 August 2023 as part of a disclosed $7.2 billion AWS investment in Israel through 2037, explicitly framed around enabling the Israeli government’s Nimbus cloud-migration programme for ministries and public-sector bodies ⁴⁵. No public evidence identified that Netflix’s own consumer-streaming or corporate workloads are hosted in, or routed through, the Tel Aviv AWS Region specifically, and No public evidence identified of Netflix directly contracting under Project Nimbus or an equivalent state-backed programme, which is documented as a Google/Amazon-Israel government contract rather than a Netflix engagement ⁴⁵. Netflix’s Open Connect CDN appliances are embedded within the network of Partner Communications, its Israeli telecom distribution partner since a collaboration announced in May 2017, alongside other Israeli ISPs including Bezeq-Pelephone, Hot, and Cellcom that the Netflix ISP Speed Index tracks as delivering Netflix traffic in Israel ⁹¹⁰⁷⁸. Who Profits and AFSC Investigate document that Partner Communications operates over 200 cellular antennas on occupied West Bank and Golan land and has made recurring payments to the settlement of Beit El and the Migron outpost to maintain this infrastructure, meaning Netflix’s content-delivery pipeline into Israeli households is technically embedded within a telecom operator whose broader network has been documented by NGOs as extending into and servicing settlements ^11121314. This Netflix–Partner commercial relationship dates to 2017 and No public evidence identified of its termination as of the most recent Who Profits update reviewed ¹¹⁹¹⁰. No public evidence identified of Netflix providing data-sovereignty, data-residency, or infrastructure-resilience services to Israeli state institutions or military bodies.

Defence, Intelligence & Security Sector Technology Relationships

No public evidence identified of any contract, partnership, or service agreement between Netflix and the Israeli Ministry of Defence, the IDF, or Israeli intelligence agencies. No public evidence identified of Netflix’s commercial technology being deployed for military, intelligence, or law-enforcement surveillance in Israel or the occupied territories. No public evidence identified of Netflix developing, selling, licensing, or maintaining offensive cyber capabilities or digital weapons systems. A controlling-principal matter relevant to this section concerns Netflix board member Brad Smith, who has served as an independent director on Netflix’s Board since March 2015 and was re-elected in 2025 ¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷. In his capacity as Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President, Smith is the named corporate officer who oversaw Microsoft’s response to a joint investigation published 6 August 2025 reporting that Israel’s Unit 8200 used Microsoft Azure cloud storage in the Netherlands and Ireland to hold roughly 11,500 terabytes (approximately 200 million hours of audio) of intercepted Palestinian phone-call data collected via mass surveillance in Gaza and the West Bank since 2022, with sources telling reporters the system helped guide strikes and shaped operations ¹⁸¹⁹. Following the exposure, Microsoft launched an internal and external review, and on 25 September 2025 Smith announced Microsoft had “ceased and disabled a set of services” - specific Azure storage capacity and AI services - to a unit within Israel’s Ministry of Defence, while stating this did not affect Microsoft’s broader cybersecurity work with Israel ^2021222324. The underlying Azure relationship reportedly began in 2022 and continued through the August 2025 exposure - past both the ICJ’s July 2024 advisory opinion and the ICC’s November 2024 arrest warrants - before partial curtailment in September 2025, and the curtailment followed external media exposure rather than pre-emptive action ¹⁸¹⁹²¹. This is documented here as a Microsoft corporate act attributable to a Netflix board member’s other executive role, not as a Netflix corporate act.

AI, Algorithmic & Autonomous Systems

No public evidence identified of Netflix providing AI/ML, computer-vision, or autonomous decision-support systems to Israeli state, military, or security bodies. No public evidence identified that Netflix’s AI/recommendation models have been trained on or given access to civilian population data, intercepted communications, or surveillance-derived datasets originating from Israel or the occupied territories. No public evidence identified of Netflix providing autonomous targeting, threat-detection, or tracking systems to Israeli military or security forces; the Microsoft/Azure/Unit 8200 matter described above concerns a different company’s general-purpose cloud and AI storage infrastructure rather than a purpose-built targeting system attributable to Netflix ^18192122.

Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint

Netflix maintains a Tel Aviv office, with current and historical job postings showing roles concentrated in Technical Customer Support, Marketing, Creative/Post-Production, Account Executive, and Product Marketing/Payments functions, indicating content-localization and commercial/MENA-regional support activity rather than a dedicated software-engineering R&D lab. Reed Hastings stated at Netflix’s 2016 Israel launch that the company would not open a local office, a position later superseded by Netflix’s subsequent Tel Aviv hiring ²⁵. No public evidence identified of Netflix acquisitions of Israeli-origin technology companies; Netflix’s disclosed gaming-studio acquisitions - Night School Studio, Boss Fight Entertainment, and Next Games - are U.S.- and Finland-based rather than Israeli. No public evidence identified of Netflix strategic investments in Israeli technology startups or venture funds, and No public evidence identified of personal Israeli-startup investments by Reed Hastings, whose disclosed personal investment portfolio centers on U.S. and Kenya-based ventures. No public evidence identified of patent, licensing, or co-development arrangements between Netflix and Technion, Hebrew University, or the Weizmann Institute.

Civil Society Scrutiny & Regulatory History

Netflix does not appear in the UN OHCHR settlement-business database, its 2020 iteration of 112 entities or subsequent updates identified in this research, nor in the searchable text of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s July 2025 report “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide,” nor in the Don’t Buy Into Occupation “V report” of November 2025 ^2627282930. Netflix’s Israeli telecom distribution partner, Partner Communications, is separately documented in the UN 2020 database and in Who Profits/AFSC research for settlement-infrastructure activity unrelated to the Netflix content-distribution deal specifically ^11131428. Axel Springer SE, whose CEO and Chairman Mathias Döpfner has sat on Netflix’s Board since September 2018, is separately the subject of NGO and legal scrutiny by The Intercept, ELSC, and Law4Palestine over its Israeli subsidiary Yad2’s classified-ads listings of West Bank settlement properties, including a formal German regulatory complaint filed in December 2024 by Palestinian villagers ^3115323334. This is documented as an Axel Springer corporate matter attributable to a Netflix board member’s other directorship, not a Netflix corporate act. Netflix was the subject of an organized campaign in October–November 2024, including an open letter from Freedom Forward and roughly 35 human-rights organizations and a CodePink petition with approximately 12,000 signatures, over its removal of the “Palestinian Stories” collection, which was reduced from 32 films to about 13 globally and removed entirely (returning a 404 error) for Israeli IP addresses ³⁵³⁶. Netflix’s stated explanation was that content-licensing periods had ended and that the removal was “standard practice,” a characterization it maintained in response to the criticism ³⁷³⁸. No public evidence identified of a distinct, named BDS/boycott campaign against Netflix specifically framed around technology provision, as opposed to content-licensing or content-removal grievances ^35373639. No public evidence identified of regulatory inquiries, export-control actions, or sanctions-related investigations involving Netflix technology sales or services to Israeli state entities. Separately, in 2025 Israel’s government proposed a broadcasting-law reform that would have required Netflix, Apple, and Disney+ to invest 4–6.5% of Israeli revenue in local content; Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos traveled to Israel to lobby against the bill, and in March 2026 Israel’s Communications Minister revoked the relevant clauses following reported pressure from the Trump administration, a content-investment regulatory dispute rather than a technology-procurement matter ^40414243. Netflix has separately faced commentary regarding creator relationships and charitable-giving matters connected to Israel, including its overall deal with “Fauda” and “Hit & Run” co-creators Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz, public remarks by CEO Ted Sarandos alongside “Fauda” and “Tehran” creators regarding the Israel-Hamas war, and a corrected report regarding Netflix matching employee donations to an Israeli EMS service ⁴⁴⁴⁵⁴⁶.

End Notes