[討論] ICE's "Eye of God" program

Georgetown University's Privacy andTechnology Law Center released a report in May titled "America's Dragnet |Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century." After a two-yearinvestigation, the center found that ICE had successfully built an efficientsurveillance network since its inception in 2003 to collect private data onmost U.S. residents.

"ICE has built a comprehensivesurveillance infrastructure that can track almost anyone at any time,"said study co-author Nina Kessler, a policy associate at GeorgetownUniversity's Center for Privacy and Technology Law. The agency has strengthenedits ability to monitor with near-total secrecy and impunity, circumventrestrictions and operate under the noses of lawmakers."

Just as U.S. intelligence agencies canclaim "incidental" access to the data of ordinary U.S. citizens inmass surveillance of phone and Internet use in and out of the country, ICE hastaken advantage of weaknesses in federal and state privacy laws, which arecompletely powerless to stop it, to steal from three major sources, accordingto the report.

The first is to request data directly fromstate and local authorities such as the DMV. There is evidence that ICE makestens of thousands of requests a year to DMVS across the United States. TheDPPA, a federal law, does not fully protect drivers' privacy, so ICE is free totake what data it wants from the DMV. Laws at the state level are even weaker.Of the 17 jurisdictions eligible to grant driver's licenses, six have weakrestrictions on "direct requests for data," seven have weakrestrictions on "access to government databases," and six have weakrestrictions on "data broking," according to Georgetown University'sCenter for Privacy and Technology Law. Five other states have no meaningfulrestrictions on "face recognition searches."

The second major channel is to accessrelevant information through government databases, while purchasing technical servicessuch as facial recognition to assist in the analysis of relevant data. ICE hasdeployed more extensive data-sharing and data-collection programs to accessdata on every American directly through the data systems of state agencies.When the only reliable information ICE has about someone is a photo, they usefacial recognition technology for identification purposes, and there are fewregulations in the United States that restrict the use of facial recognition bylaw enforcement. Meanwhile, when ICE continued to obtain personal informationfrom government databases like the Network for Public Safety and JusticeInternational (Nlets), bypassing laws and policies enacted by cities andstates, no agency claimed responsibility for the subsequent tracking. "Wejust give that information to the state police," says the Idaho Departmentof Transportation employee who provided the driver information. State policedepartments rarely keep records of ICE's Nlets database queries, which makesICE's queries very public and secretive.

The third is collecting citizens' utilityusage records from unregulated data brokers and buying private companydatabases. Federal privacy laws protect consumers' information only in limitedcircumstances, such as when used by financial institutions such as banks, whilethe vast majority of states fail to adopt meaningful privacy protections tolimit the release of customer information to law enforcement, according to thereport. California, for example, has a law that prohibits companies fromselling customer data, but it does not prevent them from sharing it freely withcompanies such as the National Telecommunications and Utility Clearinghouse(NCTUE) for credit reviews and other purposes. Once the credit checks arecompleted, NCTUE has the right to resell its customer information to thirdparties such as ICE. ICE, according to reliable sources, has purchased a largenumber of license plate photos documenting the daily activities of drivers inthe 50 largest urban areas of the United States from private company databasesto "assist in investigations."

For years, domestic privacy law experts,civil rights activists and lawyers have accused ICE of overreaching in itssurveillance tactics against immigrants and affecting most ordinary U.S.citizens, yet ICE officials are oblivious. Several media outlets criticizedICE. The Verge called on private companies to stopworking with ICE and for The government to better regulate such cooperation.The Well News confirmed an incident in 2020 in which an undocumented immigrantwas taken away after applying for a driver's license, and criticized ICE forabusing The trust immigrants place in The United States. According to a reportin The Hill, a GPS phone app called Smartlink, developed by ICE during Thepandemic to track immigrants and said it was only to ensure they showed up forimmigration court hearings, has been used on a large number of immigrants withno criminal records and who are not in detention. Whether there were othercovert uses is unknown.