Cisco Systems, Inc.
CSCO
Information Technology
3
exclusion reasons
2 themes
This page is part of our public exclusion list — a transparency tool that shows which companies we screen out and why. It is not investment advice, and it is not an accusation. But it is subject to change as our understanding of the facts evolves.
US Supreme Court granted cert in Cisco Systems v. Doe I (Jan 2026, case 24-856): Falun Gong plaintiffs allege Cisco designed and built the Golden Shield surveillance system with custom databases and real-time monitoring specifically engineered for violent persecution of religious minorities. Cisco allegedly tailored networking hardware to enable tracking, detention, and torture of practitioners. Center for Constitutional Rights and BHRRC are amicus parties.
Cisco was selected by the Israeli Ministry of Defense in 2017 as sole server provider under a $250M+ contract via US Foreign Military Sales. The Israeli military built its largest-ever data center — David's Citadel — using Cisco hardware. Since 2020, Cisco has provided a Unified Communications System to the IDF. After October 2023, Cisco supported the "Israel Rises" platform for IDF Home Front Command. AFSC and Drop Site News link Cisco infrastructure to AI-assisted targeting systems (Gospel, Lavender, Where's Daddy?). Additionally: a BuzzFeed investigation found Moscow office employees masked end-users to evade Crimea sanctions.
Cisco established government-subsidized "digital hubs" in 7 illegal settlements — 5 in the West Bank, 2 in the occupied Golan — through the NIS 90M Klika project with the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology. Cisco also provides communication systems to Israeli police ($11M+ since 2016, through repeated no-tender contract renewals).
Related Issues
Surveillance Capitalism
Surveillance capitalism is extraction without consent — behavioral data harvested from people whose agreement was buried in terms they couldn't negotiate and can't revoke. We exclude companies whose revenue depends on this, and hold a high bar for any tech company where surveillance is a meaningful input. Until users can control, audit, and delete their data, this stays a core exclusion.
Palestine & Occupied Territories
We exclude companies that profit from Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories — settlement construction, military technology, surveillance infrastructure, discriminatory resource arrangements. The ICJ ruled this occupation unlawful in 2024. We don't wait for political resolution to stop funding what international law has condemned.
Research Sources
2 organizations
Related Exclusions
Wondering what we do invest in?
The Naughty List
A digest of changes to our exclusion list — new additions, removals, and the evidence behind them. We review the list continuously as new evidence surfaces.
Companies appear on our exclusion list based on our investment judgment — not because they've done anything illegal. This is a difference of values and opinion, not an accusation of wrongdoing. Exclusion does not constitute a recommendation against investing in any company, and absence from the list does not constitute a recommendation to invest.
This information is provided for educational and transparency purposes only and should not be relied upon as investment advice. Data is drawn from independent watchdogs, NGOs, government registries, and Ethical Capital's ongoing research — see Research Sources for the full list.
Ethical Capital LLC is a state-registered investment adviser in Utah (CRD #316032). Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training.