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An activist has started using artificial intelligence to identify Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents beneath their masks — a use of the technology sparking new political concerns over AI-powered surveillance.
Dominick Skinner, a Netherlands-based immigration activist, estimates he and a group of volunteers have publicly identified at least 20 ICE officials recorded wearing masks during arrests. He told POLITICO his experts are “able to reveal a face using AI, if they have 35 percent or more of the face visible.”
The AI-powered project adds a new twist to the debates over both ICE masking and government surveillance tools, as immigration enforcement becomes more widespread and aggressive.
ICE says its agents need to wear masks to prevent being unfairly harassed for doing their jobs. To their critics, agents in masks have become a potent symbol of unaccountable government force. The masking, and the counter-campaign to identify agents, has prompted a crossfire of bills on Capitol Hill.
ICE agents “don't deserve to be hunted online by activists using AI,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee on border management and the federal workforce.
Some Democrats concerned about the masking are pushing for regulations to make it easier to identify law enforcement officials — but they still say they’re uneasy that vigilante campaigns have begun using technology to do it.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who co-sponsored a bill called the VISIBLE Act to require ICE officials to clearly identify themselves, has “serious concerns about the reliability, safety and privacy implications of facial recognition tools, whether used by law enforcement … or used by outside groups to identify agents,” an aide told POLITICO.
Skinner’s AI-powered unmasking project is part of a broader online campaign, the ICE List, that has published the names of more than 100 ICE employees, from field agents to back-office bureaucrats. It’s one of several anti-ICE campaigns that have drawn attention from the media and Homeland Security officials.
ICE did not comment on the accuracy of Skinner’s purported identifications, but in a statement, ICE spokesperson Tanya Roman said that the masks “are for safety, not secrecy” and that these listings threaten officers’ lives.
“These misinformed activists and others like them are the very reason the brave men and women of ICE choose to wear masks in the first place, and why they, and their families, are increasingly being targeted and assaulted,” Roman said.
The Department of Homeland Security criticized his ICE List project in a July statement, saying Skinner’s efforts appear to be responsible for doxing federal officers.
In response to efforts to identify ICE agents, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy and technology, introduced the Protecting Law Enforcement from Doxxing Act in June, which would make it illegal to publish a federal officer’s name with the intent to obstruct a criminal investigation.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ai-ummasking-ice-officers-washington-180000957.html
Dominick Skinner, a Netherlands-based immigration activist, estimates he and a group of volunteers have publicly identified at least 20 ICE officials recorded wearing masks during arrests. He told POLITICO his experts are “able to reveal a face using AI, if they have 35 percent or more of the face visible.”
The AI-powered project adds a new twist to the debates over both ICE masking and government surveillance tools, as immigration enforcement becomes more widespread and aggressive.
ICE says its agents need to wear masks to prevent being unfairly harassed for doing their jobs. To their critics, agents in masks have become a potent symbol of unaccountable government force. The masking, and the counter-campaign to identify agents, has prompted a crossfire of bills on Capitol Hill.
ICE agents “don't deserve to be hunted online by activists using AI,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee on border management and the federal workforce.
Some Democrats concerned about the masking are pushing for regulations to make it easier to identify law enforcement officials — but they still say they’re uneasy that vigilante campaigns have begun using technology to do it.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who co-sponsored a bill called the VISIBLE Act to require ICE officials to clearly identify themselves, has “serious concerns about the reliability, safety and privacy implications of facial recognition tools, whether used by law enforcement … or used by outside groups to identify agents,” an aide told POLITICO.
Skinner’s AI-powered unmasking project is part of a broader online campaign, the ICE List, that has published the names of more than 100 ICE employees, from field agents to back-office bureaucrats. It’s one of several anti-ICE campaigns that have drawn attention from the media and Homeland Security officials.
ICE did not comment on the accuracy of Skinner’s purported identifications, but in a statement, ICE spokesperson Tanya Roman said that the masks “are for safety, not secrecy” and that these listings threaten officers’ lives.
“These misinformed activists and others like them are the very reason the brave men and women of ICE choose to wear masks in the first place, and why they, and their families, are increasingly being targeted and assaulted,” Roman said.
The Department of Homeland Security criticized his ICE List project in a July statement, saying Skinner’s efforts appear to be responsible for doxing federal officers.
In response to efforts to identify ICE agents, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy and technology, introduced the Protecting Law Enforcement from Doxxing Act in June, which would make it illegal to publish a federal officer’s name with the intent to obstruct a criminal investigation.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ai-ummasking-ice-officers-washington-180000957.html
