New report alleges deep co-operation between Microsoft, Google, Amazon and US military

The largest technology companies in the world, including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, all have contracts with the American government and federal law enforcement agencies that had gone previously unreported. Research from the non-profit Tech Inquiry has found that these companies have thousands of deals with the Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The revelation comes as workers from Google and Microsoft are asking executives to take action and end contracts with the police and other law enforcement organisations as Black Lives Matter protests continue across the country. An analysis of over 30 million government contracts signed over the past five years found that many of these large companies use subcontracts to fulfil government requests. "Often the high-level contract description between tech companies and the military looks very vanilla and mundane," Jack Poulson of Tech Inquiry told NBC. "But only when you look at the details of the contract, which you can only get through Freedom of Information [Act] requests, do you see the workings of how the customisation from a tech company would actually be involved."