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ICE's surveillance app is a techno-authoritarian nightmare
Mobile Fortify lets agents obtain vast amounts of information on anyone by scanning their face
Opinion
Fri 30 Jan 2026 08.00 EST
Moustafa Bayoumi
The lethal force Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is meting out on American streets is rightly drawing loud condemnations from politicians and editorial boards across the nation and around the world. Now is the time we must start paying attention to another highly damaging part of ICE’s arsenal: the agency’s deployment of mass surveillance.
I’m referring specifically to Mobile Fortify, a specialized app ICE has been using at least since May 2025. (Usage of the app was first reported last June by 404Media.) What is Mobile Fortify? It’s an app for facial recognition that can additionally take “contactless fingerprints” of someone simply by snapping a picture of a person’s fingers. The app has been used more than 100,000 times, including on children, as alleged in a lawsuit filed by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago. And it’s dangerous.
After taking someone’s picture, an ICE agent can now scan for that person’s face or fingerprints in a host of government databases that reportedly include more than 200 million images. The agent will immediately obtain vast amounts of information on that person, including name and date of birth, possible citizenship status, names of family members, markers like alien registration numbers and much more.
...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/30/ice-surveillance-app-mobile-fortify-authoritarian
Opinion
Fri 30 Jan 2026 08.00 EST
Moustafa Bayoumi
The lethal force Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is meting out on American streets is rightly drawing loud condemnations from politicians and editorial boards across the nation and around the world. Now is the time we must start paying attention to another highly damaging part of ICE’s arsenal: the agency’s deployment of mass surveillance.
I’m referring specifically to Mobile Fortify, a specialized app ICE has been using at least since May 2025. (Usage of the app was first reported last June by 404Media.) What is Mobile Fortify? It’s an app for facial recognition that can additionally take “contactless fingerprints” of someone simply by snapping a picture of a person’s fingers. The app has been used more than 100,000 times, including on children, as alleged in a lawsuit filed by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago. And it’s dangerous.
After taking someone’s picture, an ICE agent can now scan for that person’s face or fingerprints in a host of government databases that reportedly include more than 200 million images. The agent will immediately obtain vast amounts of information on that person, including name and date of birth, possible citizenship status, names of family members, markers like alien registration numbers and much more.
...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/30/ice-surveillance-app-mobile-fortify-authoritarian
I remember that several had questions about why Renee Good's murderer was intent upon filming her. This is why. The regime is building a nationwide surveillance database. This is a nightmare.
3 replies
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