In a letter directed to U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons, three U.S. senators are calling for the controversial government agency to cease use of “Mobile Fortify,” a mobile app that uses facial
recognition and other biometric identification methods to allegedly surveil individuals, including American citizens.
“This
app reportedly allows federal agents to identify and retrieve vast amounts of information on a person, just by pointing a phone at their face,” the letter reads, adding that “ICE is
reportedly repurposing data held across federal and state databases related to 'individuals, vehicles, airplanes, vessels, addresses, phone numbers and firearms' and may even be planning to buy data
from commercial data brokers for this app.”
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The lawmakers behind the letter -- including Senators Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley, and Edward J. Markey -- suggest
that facial-recognition technology remains “biased and inaccurate, especially for communities of color.”
Regardless of the reliability of
biometric identification methods, the senators believe that even when accurate, “this type of on-demand surveillance threatens the privacy and free speech rights of everyone in the United
States,” especially when it is “weaponized” against those speaking out against the federal government and its policies.
The letter argues that surveilling people this
way undermines democracy, and states that “ICE should immediately cease using this app and explain its policies and practices surrounding the use of biometric technology.”
The
senators asked Lyons to provide information about who built Mobile Fortify, when ICE began using it, and whether the agency tests its accuracy by October 2.
In addition to Wyden, Merkley, and
Markey, the letter was signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Chris Van Holle, Tina Smith, Bernie Sanders, and Adam Schiff.
Senators Markey and Wyden, in particular, have been
critics of facial-recognition technology for years. In 2018, after the ACLU reported that Amazon’s use of facial technology was flawed, these senators called for a wide-ranging examination of how biometric tech
was being used by data brokers and marketers.
Two years later, in 2020,
Markey wrote a letter to the CEO of facial-recognition company Clearview AI, Hoan Ton-That to address the potential violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection
Act, which prohibits websites from knowingly collecting personal data from users under 13 years of age without their parents' permission.
While major tech companies continue to violate privacy laws with the unlawful use of
facial recognition tech, law enforcement outfits have also come under fire. In May, The Washington Post reported that for two years, the New Orleans police were secretly using facial
recognition on a private camera network of over 200 live feeds.
Prior to Wyden, Merkley, and Markey's recent letter, emails exchanged between ICE and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)
describe the Mobile Fortify app as using “real-time biometric identify verification capability utilizing contactless fingerprints and facial images captured by the camera on an ICE-issued cell
phone without a second collection device.”
However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has yet to confirm how the app is being used.