{"id":78720,"date":"2026-02-06T15:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/890060574"},"modified":"2026-02-06T15:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:42:44","slug":"facial-recognition-tech-used-to-hunt-migrants-was-deployed-without-required-privacy-paperwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/06\/facial-recognition-tech-used-to-hunt-migrants-was-deployed-without-required-privacy-paperwork\/","title":{"rendered":"Facial Recognition Tech Used To Hunt Migrants Was Deployed Without Required Privacy Paperwork"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n

from the shoot-first,-ask-questions-never<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

In the grand scheme of things \u2014 the wanton cruelty<\/a>, the routine violations of rights<\/a>, the actual fucking murders<\/a> \u2014 this may only seem like a blip on the mass deportation continuum. But this report from Dell Cameron for Wired<\/a> is still important. It not only explains why federal officers are approaching people with cellphones drawn<\/a> nearly as often as they\u2019re approaching them with guns drawn, but also shows the administration is yet again pretending it\u2019s a law unto itself. <\/p>\n

\n

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security<\/a> published new details about Mobile Fortify, the face recognition<\/a> app that federal immigration agents use to identify people in the field, undocumented immigrants and US citizens alike. The details, including the company behind the app, were published as part of DHS\u2019s 2025 AI Use Case Inventory<\/a>, which federal agencies are required to release periodically.<\/em><\/p>\n

The inventory includes two entries for Mobile Fortify\u2014one for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), another for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)\u2014and says the app is in the \u201cdeployment\u201d stage for both. CBP says that Mobile Fortify became \u201coperational\u201d at the beginning of May last year, while ICE got access to it on May 20, 2025. That date is about a month before 404 Media first reported<\/a> on the app\u2019s existence.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A lot was going on last May, in terms of anti-migrant efforts and the casual refusal to recognize long-standing constitutional rights. That was the same month immigration officers were told<\/a> they could enter people\u2019s homes while only carrying self-issued \u201cadministrative warrants,\u201d which definitely<\/em> aren\u2019t the same thing as the judicial warrants the government actually<\/em> needs to enter areas provided the utmost in Fourth Amendment protection.<\/p>\n

The app federal officers are using is made by NEC, a tech company that\u2019s been around since long before ICE and CBP become the mobile atrocities they are. Prior to this revelation, NEC had only been associated with developing biometric software with an eye on crafting something that could be swiftly deployed and just as quickly scaled to meet the government\u2019s needs. This particular app was never made public prior to this.<\/p>\n

ICE claims it\u2019s not a direct customer. It\u2019s only a beneficiary of the CBP\u2019s existing contract with NEC. That\u2019s a meaningless distinction when multiple federal agencies have been co-opted into the administration\u2019s bigoted push to rid the nation of brown people. <\/p>\n

As is always the case (and this precedes Trump 2.0), CBP and ICE are rolling out tech far ahead of the privacy impact paperwork that\u2019s supposed to filed before anything goes live. <\/p>\n

\n

While CBP says there are \u201csufficient monitoring protocols\u201d in place for the app, ICE says that the development of monitoring protocols is in progress, and that it will identify potential impacts during an AI impact assessment. According to guidance<\/a> from the Office of Management and Budget, which was issued before the inventory says the app was deployed for either CBP or ICE, agencies are supposed to complete an AI impact assessment before deploying any high-impact use case. Both CBP and ICE say the app is \u201chigh-impact\u201d and \u201cdeployed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is standard operating procedure for the federal government. The FBI and DEA were deploying surveillance tech<\/a> well ahead of Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) as far back as [oh wow] 2014<\/a>, while the nation was still being run by someone who generally appeared to be a competent statesman. That nothing has changed since makes it clear this problem is endemic. <\/p>\n

But things are a bit worse now that Trump is running an administration stocked with fully-cooked MAGA acolytes. In the past, our rights might have received a bit of lip service and the occasional congressional hearing about the lack of required Privacy Impact Assessments.<\/p>\n

None of that will be happening now. No one in the DHS is even going to bother to apply pressure to those charged with crafting these assessments. And no one will threaten (much less terminate) the tech deployment until these assessments have been completed. I would fully expect this second Trump term to come and go without the delivery of legally-required paperwork, especially since oversight of these agencies will be completely nonexistent as long as the GOP holds a congressional majority.<\/p>\n

We lose. The freshly stocked swamp wins. And while it\u2019s normal to expect the federal government to bristle at the suggestion of oversight, it\u2019s entirely abnormal to allow an administration that embraces white Christian nationalism to act as though the only holy text any Trump appointee subscribes to was handed down by Aleister Crowley: Do what thou wilt. That is the whole of the law.<\/a><\/p>\n

Filed Under: border patrol<\/a>, cbp<\/a>, dhs<\/a>, facial recognition tech<\/a>, ice<\/a>, mass deportation<\/a>, surveillance<\/a>, trump administration<\/a>
Companies: mobile fortify<\/a>, nec<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… ICE are rolling out tech<\/span> far ahead of the … DEA were deploying surveillance tech<\/span> well ahead of Privacy … (much less terminate) the tech<\/span> deployment until these assessments have … patrol, cbp, dhs, facial recognition tech<\/span>, ice, mass deportation, surveillance, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}