A Tale of Two Blog Posts

[Bloomberg] [Fully Charged]( From [Bloomberg](   [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]([Twitter Share]( [SUBSCRIBE [Subscribe]](  Hello everyone. [Dina](mailto:dbass2@bloomberg.net) here. It was a Tale of Two Blog Posts. Timed for Father's Day in the U.S. on Sunday morning, Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith [decried]( the Trump administration's policy of splitting up immigrant families who come to the U.S. illegally and boasted about the software maker's legal efforts to ensure kids get an immigration attorney if they need one. Around the same time, Twitter users started [circulating]( a snippet from an earlier Microsoft blog with a brag of a different kind: the company's pride in landing a cloud contract with ICE, one of the agencies responsible for the immigration enforcement that's seen kids as young as a few months ripped from their parents and sent to separate detention centers. Microsoft has more than $19 million worth of contracts with the agency, according to Bloomberg Government data. After the Twitter bashing, an employee pulled the braggadocious part of the ICE blog. The company put it back online when Bloomberg and others called about it. The episode has put Microsoft in a deeply uncomfortable and unfamiliar place. It likes to position itself as a defender of immigrants, participating in suits against the Trump administration over a travel ban targeting some Muslim-majority countries and threatening legal action to defend Dreamer employees who came to the U.S. as children of undocumented immigrants. Now, to activists and some of its own workers, the Microsoft contracts mean it's complicit in ICE's misdeeds. The outcry, along with a similar groundswell at Google that got that company to let a AI drone Pentagon contract lapse, marks a low point in how tech companies' government work is regarded. In the past, the industry has come under fire for selling to authoritarian regimes. Now similar issues are being raised about deals with the U.S. military or American police forces. Amazon has come under fire for a contract to provide facial-recognition software to law enforcement. Ethical concerns were always bound to arise over the increased use of AI tools for things like surveillance and police work, particularly amid a growing outcry over police treatment of minorities. These are precisely the populations where image-recognition software [struggles](. But the main impetus for concern right now seems to be objections to the very notion of aiding a government whose actions many find objectionable. Increasingly, tech employees expect their company to reflect the ethics they hold dear and it's not clear how firms will respond to this. An internal petition at Microsoft asked the company to cancel the ICE contract, but the U.S. government is one of the most lucrative customers around, just witness the [squabbling]( over a massive Defense Department cloud contract. It's easier when your workers want you to be pro-LGBT or pro-Dreamers, policies that are beneficial to tech companies located in liberal towns. It's much harder when employees want the company to undermine the top or bottom line. Tuesday night, Microsoft tried to shift the debate back to more comfortable footing, advocating for policies it wants to see like immigration reform, while CEO Satya Nadella noted his own background as an immigrant and decried separating families as "cruel and abusive." President Donald Trump [ordered]( an end to the policy on Wednesday. But if the U.S. government continues to take stands many tech employees abhor, Microsoft isn't going to be the last company facing this conflict.  And here’s what you need to know in global technology news: A steady salary, a team mansion and support from a chef, a coach and personal trainers. These are perks that come with playing video games for a living. Check out the [first episode]( of Bloomberg's new mini-documentary series Next Jobs, about the careers of the future.  Tinder's owner just [bought]( an anti-Tinder dating app.  Xiaomi [sets terms]( for the biggest IPO in almost two years.  The free stock-trading service Robinhood is in talks to [offer banking services]( like savings accounts.  He told them so. A professor [warned]( Cambridge University in 2014 about Cambridge Analytica's misuse of Facebook data. Not only was he ignored but his legacy and his department has been swept up in the scandal.  A Danish company built AI that helps 911 operators [detect cardiac arrest]( in callers.   Sponsored by Transamerica The story of retirement is being rewritten. It’s no longer a brief period at the end of life. It’s a dynamic life stage as important as any other. Help your clients appreciate what it means to live longer-and better. Discover the Wealth + Health connection at [Transamerica.com/lp/longevity](   You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Technology newsletter Fully Charged. You can tell your friends to [sign up here](.  [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022