{"id":23005,"date":"2025-09-11T14:42:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T18:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=23005"},"modified":"2025-09-25T10:56:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T14:56:02","slug":"wyden-merkley-and-markey-demand-ice-stop-using-mobile-facial-recognition-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wyden-merkley-and-markey-demand-ice-stop-using-mobile-facial-recognition-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyden, Merkley and Markey Demand ICE Stop Using Mobile Facial Recognition App"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senators raise concerns about harm to privacy and free speech<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington DC<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (both D-Ore.) today joined with U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) to urge the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop using a new biometric mobile phone app, \u201cMobile Fortify,\u201d to surveil individuals in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biometric scanning technology \u2014 such as facial recognition \u2014 is often biased and inaccurate, especially against communities of color. Even when accurate, this type of on-demand surveillance threatens the Fourth Amendment privacy rights and First Amendment free speech rights of everyone in the United States, especially when the technology is weaponized against protesters and anyone who speaks out against the federal government\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis app reportedly allows federal agents to identify and retrieve vast amounts of information on a person, just by pointing a phone at their face, \u201d the senators wrote Todd Lyons, Acting Director of ICE. <\/strong>\u201cICE is reportedly repurposing data held across federal and state databases related to \u2018individuals, vehicles, airplanes, vessels, addresses, phone numbers and firearms\u2019 and may even be planning to buy data from commercial data brokers for this app.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIn the absence of meaningful regulation of the government\u2019s use of facial recognition tools, the public is likely to be increasingly subject to ongoing, real-time surveillance,\u201d escribieron los legisladores. <\/strong>\u201cThis Big Brotherism means that individuals may be less able to move, assemble, or appear in public without the federal government identifying and tracking them. As studies have shown, when individuals believe they are being surveilled, they are less likely to engage in First Amendment protected activities, such as protests or rallies \u2014 undermining the very core of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The senators request responses by October 2, 2025, to questions including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n