The request was backed up by the Department of Homeland Security’s own Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for ICE’s use of facial recognition services, EPIC argues.Īccording to information included in the PIA, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents routinely use FRS to generate candidate lists to identify unknown persons or to locate unknown persons. This time, EPIC widened the scope of its investigation, asking ICE for all records “related to the agency’s use of facial recognition software (FRS).” ICE refused to provide such information, so EPIC tried again with a new FOIA request in June. The FOIA request filed by EPIC then asked for emails and communications about Clearview AI, as well as all contracts and agreements with the company and more. The claims had also been corroborated by Buzzfeed News, whose sources claimed Clearview has already shared and or sold its technology to more than 2,200 law enforcement departments, government agencies, and companies, including ICE. On that occasion, EPIC mentioned a New York Times investigation claiming that Clearview AI’s facial recognition algorithm was being deployed by law enforcement agencies to identify people in public spaces, and on social media without any legal basis.
The first request, submitted in March, saw EPIC inquiring about records related to ICE’s use of Clearview AI technology.
