For years, little was known about how Ice uses Palantir’s technology. The company has consistently described itself as a “data processor” and says it does not play an active role in any of its customers’ data collection efforts or what clients do with that information.
Now, a cache of internal Ice documents – including hundreds of pages of emails between Ice and Palantir, as well as training manuals, and reports on the use of Palantir products – offer some of the first real-world examples of how Ice has used Palantir in its investigations and during on-the-ground enforcement operations.
The documents, which were obtained by immigrant legal rights group Just Futures Law through a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by the Guardian, largely cover Palantir’s contract with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of Ice that is responsible for stopping the “illegal movement of people, goods, money, contraband, weapons and sensitive technology”.
Palantir recently won a $30m contract to build the government a new platform called ImmigrationOS that will service Ice branches beyond HSI, and aims to “streamline” the identification and deportation of immigrants. While the documents are largely limited to HSI’s operations, it’s easy to see how the tools could be of use to other branches of Ice.
One document showed that agents could use Falcon to search for people’s names, known locations, vehicles or passport information against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal databases like the Enforcement Integrated Database (EID) – a vast database that holds biometric and personal information on anyone who has been encountered or arrested, detained or deported by any DHS agency – on the go.
In addition to collecting and analyzing field interviews, the agents used Falcon for “blueforce tracking”, a military term for tracking someone’s GPS location. Training documents show Ice agents could also use Falcon to track a person’s location, including their “route and movement”, hour by hour using cell phone tower records.
I always remember what I read some tech reporter write about it: Palantir isn't some miracle, it's just pulling together a few tools to search through vast databases (incl. audio and video I guess), and a UI on top of it all. Maybe that sort of search box we've all seen in crime TV shows.
That doesn't make it less evil, but it's good to remember that it isn't some quasi sentient miracle. It's just software, and a large part of its appeal is convenience, not revolutionary capabilities.
This combined with live facial recognition camera networks and drones already being proposed in some cities is what makes it such a scary tool with so much potential for abuse.
Imagine the way people have been unfairly targeted and harassed in the past for political affiliations. Like think about the level of spying that was done to MLK and his family, and imagine that the FBI had access to something like this, and could use it against anyone in the entire country.
There is also increasing overlap between federal and local agencies sharing these platforms. Soon even local police may be able to access these networks and databases, and use them to harass anyone for any reason, even personal. Like imagine you or your family member end up on the wrong local cop's shit list, and they decide to target you.
The most concerning is the thought of all of this combined with the tech like Lavender being used in Gaza. Inescapable 24/7 AI scanning, monitoring, and surveillance that can track you anywhere, and send a drone strike to take you out. (As well as anyone unfortunate enough to be in your vicinity at the time.) And sometimes the AI just fucks up and ends up taking out an incorrect target.
Israel still hasn't revealed what their "secret weapon was, but I assumed those nuclear scientists in Iran that were all killed simultaneously in their sleep (Operation Narnia) were targeted using something similar to the tech Palantir already provides for the attacks on Gaza.
The Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Targeted Operations: An Analysis of Israeli and US Involvement in Iran
As I said