Videos on social media show officers from ICE and CBP using facial recognition technology on people in the field. One expert described the practice as “pure dystopian creep.”

He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
    113·
    2 days ago

    This reeks of bullshit by ICE, they can’t verify citizenship from a face, because AFAIK there is no database of citizenship faces.

    It is way more likely to be run against for instance criminal arrest photo databases.
    There may be other segments they can take from like military and DMV, but they can’t say that because they don’t have a photo match that people aren’t citizens.
    It can only in a very limited percentage of cases confirm citizenship, and most of those will be people who have papers like a drivers license on them already.

    This is probably part of the ongoing scare campaign, and serves very little practical purpose.

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
      33·
      2 days ago

      TSA has been scanning people’s faces at security checkpoints for several years now. I’ve been opting out every time because I figured building a facial recognition database was the end goal.

      they can’t say that because they don’t have a photo match that people aren’t citizens.

      Sure, sure, until they start doing it and no one stops them.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
        8·
        2 days ago

        Opting out how? They have automatically-assembled video footage of you from the moment you stepped out of the vehicle you took to the airport up until the moment you walked off the jetway onto your flight.

        • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          Oh, that’s true, but I’m talking about the direct face scan they do at the security line, which you have the right to opt out of.

          There’s still a big difference between security camera shots at a distance with random lighting and a specifically designed face scanning camera pointed directly at your face from two feet away with good lighting.

          • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
            3·
            2 days ago

            I wish I shared your optimism, but I’ve seen what cameras are capable of seeing from literal miles away, if enough money is spent. I guess it comes down to weather or not any of the uncountable trillions of dollars the pentagon won’t let you audit have been spent on cameras specifically meant to surreptitiously capture your face from across the room when you “opt out”.

            • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
              3·
              1 day ago

              No, in this case it literally means you don’t stand in front of the face scanner and have your face scanned. I’m talking about going through the airport security line, where they have the face scanner device.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
        17·
        2 days ago

        Oh I didn’t think of airports. Thanks for pointing that out.

        until they start doing it and no one stops them.

        They’ll do whatever the fuck they want, nobody is really stopping them.
        Yes there are attempts and local heroes that do, but from an official side very little is being done.
        And any official that complains about it, immediately becomes a target for the administration.
        This fear campaign is far from only against immigrants, it is also to pacify Americans.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      8·
      2 days ago

      Dude it doesn’t matter if it’s legitimate or not, it will just be used as a cudgel against “undesirables” including political opponents.

    • 鳳凰院 凶真 (Hououin Kyouma)@sh.itjust.works
      41·
      1 day ago

      AFAIK there is no database of citizenship faces

      Well I mean, I do have a Certificate of Citizenship from N-600 that has a photo of me on it. USCIS probably has it in their system.

      But that photo was when I was like 13 or something, idk how they would even match that face. I have a photo ID (not “Real ID” compliant tho) that does have a recent photo, so do they looked that up? Do they even have access to DMV records?

      Or is it gonna be:

      ?

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 day ago

        Better check your papers are still legit, they have no problems throwing people out even on a minor technicality.
        Or even better find somewhere else that isn’t as much driven by hatred and sociopathy.

        • 鳳凰院 凶真 (Hououin Kyouma)@sh.itjust.works
          21·
          1 day ago

          Too late, my entire family is in the US, we have strong ties here.

          My paternal grandfather, 3 aunts, cousins, friends of my mother, the entire 关系 (Guanxi) relationship network, its all here. PRC is just hopeless which is why we left in the first place. We have no relatives in Canada or Europe or Australia, so this is why we are all here. I no longer have PRC Citizenship either way since they automatically revoked it after gaining US citizenship, on top of that I criticized the CCP too much, the bridge is already burned. Literally all my family assets are in the US…

          “Just move lol” is not a realistic solution for most people. I mean, its almost impossible to find a democratic country that will accept us.

    • diablexical@sh.itjust.works
      10·
      2 days ago

      What about the face scans through TSA and customs? I assumed those were going into every 3 letter agencies databases.

      • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 days ago

        It’s very likely that they’re using a facial recognition database made up of photos from immigration. People on visas, people who’ve been previously deported, etc.

    • ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 days ago

      Get some AI to cross reference real name social media like Facebook with genealogy apps like Ancestry and you could make a citizenship facial scan app. There would be a lot of false positives, but as long as it’s non-white people, this administration doesn’t care.

    • BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.ukEnglish
      7·
      2 days ago

      Don’t know how legal it is for govt usage, but people have been uploading photos to Meta for more than a decade at this point, directly associating their image with their identity.

    • jacksilver@lemmy.world
      6·
      2 days ago

      Even if there was, facial recognition isn’t that good. A photo taken with a phone is just going to give you some level of confidence.

      Its just an excuse, especially cause we know most facial recognition systems are racist to begin with.

    • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
      1·
      2 days ago

      All the national intelligence agencies have a database with an entry for every person they can gain any information about. So yeah, a photo and citizenship status are in a govt database for sure.

    • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
      43·
      2 days ago

      Doesn’t the NSA have exabytes (at a minimum) of data scrapped from the internet?

        • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
          61·
          2 days ago

          So we’re not all that removed from a database of citizens and their faces. The work of actually collecting that information is already done, it’s just a matter of organizing it. And there are already private contractors who specialize in just that kind of data organization.