Senators Urge ICE To Stop Using Mobile Facial-Recognition App To Surveil Americans

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.”

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.”