LexisNexis is Selling Your Personal Data to ICE So It Can Try to Predict Crimes
upstart writes:
LexisNexis Is Selling Your Personal Data to ICE So It Can Try to Predict Crimes:
The legal research and public records data broker LexisNexis is providing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with tools to target people who may potentially commit a crime - before any actual crime takes place, according to a contract document obtained by The Intercept. LexisNexis data then helps ICE to track the purported pre-criminals' movements.
The unredacted contract overview provides a rare look at the controversial $16.8 million agreement between LexisNexis and ICE, a federal law enforcement agency whose surveillance of and raids against migrant communities are widely criticized as brutal, unconstitutional, and inhumane.
"The purpose of this program is mass surveillance at its core," said Julie Mao, an attorney and co-founder of Just Futures Law, which is suing LexisNexis over allegations it illegally buys and sells personal data. Mao told The Intercept the ICE contract document, which she reviewed for The Intercept, is "an admission and indication that ICE aims to surveil individuals where no crime has been committed and no criminal warrant or evidence of probable cause."
[...] The federal government allows the general Homeland Security apparatus so much legal latitude, [Georgetown Law School's Center on Privacy and Technology Executive Director Emily] Tucker explained, that an agency like ICE is the perfect vehicle for indiscriminate surveillance of the general public, regardless of immigration status.
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