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ICE Used Facial Recognition to Mine State Driver's License Databases
WASHINGTON — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have mined state driver's license databases using facial recognition technology, analyzing millions of motorists' photos without their knowledge.
In at least three states that offer driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, ICE officials have requested to comb through state repositories of license photos, according to newly released documents. At least two of those states, Utah and Vermont, complied, searching their photos for matches, those records show.
In the third state, Washington, agents authorized administrative subpoenas of the Department of Licensing to conduct a facial recognition scan of all photos of license applicants, though it was unclear whether the state carried out the searches. In Vermont, agents only had to file a paper request that was later approved by Department of Motor Vehicles employees.
The documents, obtained through public records requests by Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology and first reported on by The Washington Post, mark the first known instance of ICE using facial recognition technology to scan state driver's license databases, including photos of legal residents and citizens.
Privacy experts like Harrison Rudolph, an associate at the center, which released the documents to The New York Times, said the records painted a new picture of a practice that should be shut down.
[...] He continued: "These states have never told undocumented people that when they apply for a driver's license they are also turning over their face to ICE. That is a huge bait and switch."
The use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement is far from new or rare. Over two dozen states allow law enforcement officials to request such searches against their databases of driver's licenses, a practice that has drawn criticism from lawmakers and advocates who say that running facial recognition searches against millions of photos of unwitting, law-abiding citizens is a major privacy violation.
The F.B.I., for example, has tapped state law enforcement's troves of photos — primarily those for driver's licenses and visa applications — for nearly a decade, according to a Government Accountability Office report. The bureau has run over 390,000 searches through databases that collectively hold over 640 million photos, F.B.I. officials said.
[...] The Seattle Times reported last year that Washington State's Department of Licensing turned over undocumented immigrants' driver's license applications to ICE officials, a practice its governor, Jay Inslee, pledged to stop. And a lawsuit in Vermont filed by an activist group cited documents obtained under public records law that showed that the state Department of Motor Vehicles forwarded names, photos, car registrations and other information on migrant workers to ICE, Vermont Public Radio reported this year.
The relationship between Washington's Department of Licensing and ICE officials may prove to be particularly interesting to privacy experts because of a law the State Legislature passed in 2012 stipulating that the department could use a facial recognition matching system for driver's licenses only when authorized by a court order, something ICE did not provide.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 08 2019, @09:59PM (4 children)
Go easy on Ikanread -- he or she is 19-24yo, out of his/her safe space, and obviously triggered by being asked to defend his/her ideas in a logical fashion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 08 2019, @11:04PM (3 children)
Wow, firstly, thank you. I wasn't trying to be so hard- didn't know I was that good! I usually shy away from these discussions. I hate that people get so polarized and narrow-minded and knickers all bunched up. And I especially hate that much of the problem is based in media bias, lies, half-truths, spin, slant, etc. There's so much more to life, and all of these powderkeg situations have many hidden layers that all interplay. Somewhere there are very wealthy powerful people running the show as we all bounce around entertaining them.
Ikanreed really harshly attacked some good people here. No need for that, just state your opinions, facts, observations.
Anyway, thanks for calming things. I'm not sure if your comment was a thinly-veiled insult, but I'm taking it literally and going back to being a house mouse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @01:27AM (2 children)
A) I was not being sarcastic toward you, I thought your post was thoughtful and modded it up.
B) I was being sarcastic toward Ikanreed who has singlehandedly managed to bring the level of conversation here down to the level of the worst twitter has to offer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @03:10AM
Not! It was aristarchus posting under the username "Runaway1956" that hijacked the border on this one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @03:28AM
Thank you, and I'm truly honored.
I can be as sarcastic / sardonic as anyone, but I almost never do it online unless I spell it out. The problem with sarcasm is that it depends on something being obvious, but not everyone sees things the same way, so sometimes sarcasm is completely misinterpreted. We've even invented "wooosh". I'm sure you knew all of that, but I spelled it out for others, and so that you know that I know (that you know that I know...)
Yeah, Ikanreed is usually a good contributor to discussions, but (s)he really went bonkers here. In fact I rarely post AC unless I have a wisecrack I can't contain but don't want attributed to me, unless people think it's funny then I wish I could grab ownership.
This whole thing has certainly been an enthusiastic discussion (that I don't have time for anyway...)
Thanks again.