Article by Adam Milward: “According to a recent Request for Information published in the Federal Register, ICE is seeking details from U.S. companies about “commercial Big Data and Ad Tech” products that could directly support investigative work.
As WIRED has reported, this appears to be the first time ICE has explicitly referenced ad tech in such a filing — signalling interest in repurposing technologies originally built for advertising, such as location and device data, for law-enforcement and surveillance purposes.
ICE has framed the request as exploratory and planning-oriented, asserting a commitment to civil liberties and privacy. However, this is not happening in isolation. ICE has previously purchased and used commercial data products — including mobile location data and analytics platforms — from vendors such as Palantir, Penlink (Webloc), and Venntel.
What are the implications for commercial organisations?
This kind of move by ICE throws a spotlight on the moral responsibilities of data-heavy companies, even when what they’re doing is technically legal.
I strongly believe in data federation and meaningful data sharing between public and private sectors. But we must be honest with ourselves: data sharing is not always an unqualified good.
If you’re sharing data or data tools with ICE, it seems reasonable to suggest you’re contributing to their output – at the moment this is certainly not something I, or MetadataWorks as a company, would be comfortable with.
For now, most of these private companies are not legally forced to sell or share data with ICE.
In essence:
- For the private sector, choosing to sell or share data or data tools is an ethical as well as a financial decision
- Choosing not to sell is also a statement which could have real commercial implications..(More)”.
