DHS uses invasive AI technology, says report
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) uses AI-powered facial recognition technology to scan billions of faces without their owners’ permission when identifying criminals, a report revealed Monday.
According to Forbes, the DHS Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit matches images of alleged perpetrators against Clearview AI, a database which has scraped over 30 billion photos of private citizens from the web without permission. HSI has spent approximately $2 million to license Clearview AI, which it has reportedly used to “investigate child exploitation.”
But it is unknown for what other purposes DHS may be using Clearview AI or other such tools. And while Forbes claims that “auditors monitor appropriate use” at the agency, a Buzzfeed report in April 2021 found that employees at over 1,800 publicly funded agencies have used Clearview AI often without the knowledge or consent of their superiors. These include military branches, health organizations, local and state police, state attorneys general, federal law enforcement and even public schools.
HSI is also not the only federal law enforcement agency to conduct searches on private Americans without their consent.
In June, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate testified before Congress that the bureau “unintentionally” made 278,000 unwarranted search requests on Americans.
A provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) referred to as Section 702 allows intelligence agencies to conduct targeted surveillance of non-US citizens overseas. Intelligence analysts run specific identifiers about the target through a database, such as a name or email address, and can then collect data on the person’s communications.
Before running any search queries, the US attorney general and national intelligence director must have first submitted a detailed request from a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and received approval. Once approval is obtained, analysts may run certain approved queries on foreign individuals outside the United States. Each “targeting request” must then be checked for legality by a senior analyst, who in turn double-checks it with another senior analyst. The Justice Department then triple-checks the request to make sure it did not violate any procedures or regulations.
But court documents unsealed in May revealed that between 2020 and early 2021, FBI operatives ran 278,000 targeted requests on American citizens through the Section 702 database. Some were targeted “in connection with civil unrest and protests” that were plaguing the country after George Floyd’s death. Others were targeted because of their political affiliations. An FBI analyst ran a batch query on 19,000 Americans who donated to a certain political party because the party was “a target of foreign influence”.
Following January 6th, the FBI ran 23,132 search queries on Americans.
