KQED's Forum Federal Agents Deploy High Tech to Track Protesters
Feb 4, 2026
Rachel Levinson-Waldman, civil liberties lawyer focused on surveillance and national security. Sheera Frenkel, NYT tech reporter who covers facial recognition and data practices. They discuss how immigration agencies use facial recognition, license-plate and phone data to identify and track observers. Conversation covers vendor tools, accuracy and bias, DHS data access, and legal and transparency challenges.
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Observer Confronted And Penalized
- Nicole Cleland trailed ICE vehicles as an observer and was later confronted and addressed by name by an ICE agent.
- She then lost TSA PreCheck/Global Entry without explanation, illustrating retaliation fears described by Sheera Frenkel.
Mobile Fortify Is Plug-And-Play
- Mobile Fortify is a phone-based facial-recognition app ICE agents can use in the field with minimal training.
- Its image sources and error rates are unclear, raising concerns about accuracy and bias, especially for non-white people.
Private Firms Build Government Face Databases
- Clearview AI scraped billions of images from public sites to build identification databases sold to law enforcement.
- That private harvesting links everyday social media photos to government identification systems without clear guardrails.
