Federal agents’ use of facial recognition technology in Minnesota sparks legal concerns

MINNEAPOLIS — There are growing concerns among some lawmakers and legal experts after reports that federal agents may be utilizing facial recognition technology in the field to capture images of suspected undocumented immigrants and American citizens.

Recently published news reports suggest this practice is becoming increasingly common in the field, especially during the surge of immigration enforcement activity in Minnesota.

A recent New York Times article claims that at least seven American citizens report hearing federal agents mention that face scanning is happening in public spaces, and some of these individuals claim to have been face-scanned themselves.

The Times article shares an example of an American citizen who has been involved in protesting against ICE and she says she was pulled over by a federal agent, and the agent addressed her by her first name and notified her that he was scanning her face with his camera.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota released a statement denouncing this practice, arguing “these uses of facial recognition technology are unconstitutional violations of our First and Fourth Amendment rights.”

University of Minnesota Law Professor Francis Shen says the legality of facial recognition technology in public places is a gray area.

“Their argument is it’s public data. We didn’t hack into anyone’s account. This is public, somebody posted it, but the key distinction is that when someone makes their data public, they haven’t necessarily given consent for that data to be used by the government for surveillance,” Professor Shen said.

Shen says he recently witnessed a possible example of a federal agent utilizing facial recognition technology in the field when he stopped by a protest to observe the crowd.

“And as I’m standing there, one of the ICE officials has his little mobile camera and he’s videotaping us,” Shen says.

KARE 11 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to see how the agency and its partner Clearview AI are using facial recognition technology in the field and how that information is being stored.

We have not heard back from DHS or the company at this time, but we did find a public notice from DHS a year ago regarding facial recognition technology and how, at that time, the technology was only being used at airports and border crossings and for investigations into child exploitation.

This public notice doesn’t mention anything about facial recognition technology being used in the field for immigration enforcement.

However, it’s important to remember this posting was from a year ago and a lot has changed since then.

Michael Rozin is a security expert who has clients like the Mall of America, which is currently using facial recognition technology to look for criminals and people who have been kicked out of the mall.

Rozin argues that facial recognition technology is a very useful tool when it comes to safety and security.

“A number of our clients have experienced tremendous value from it.”

Rozin says this technology has helped his clients avoid dangerous attacks and violence, so he argues the problem isn’t with the technology; it’s with how it is being used.

“The question is about how it’s deployed, against whom it is deployed, and what the oversight is?” Rozin says.

Facial recognition technology may seem like a new concept, but Rozin says the original idea dates back to research from the 1960’s.

Several large companies have been using facial recognition technology for several years, including smartphone companies that utilize facial recognition technology to unlock phones.

Sports leagues, including the MLB and NFL, are also using facial recognition technology at security checkpoints at stadiums and arenas to speed up the process of checking in fans before a game.

Here is the full statement from the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota regarding federal agents using facial recognition technology in the field:

“The ACLU of Minnesota is concerned about the use of facial recognition technology by federal agents in Minnesota. Facial recognition technology is inaccurate, particularly when used to identify people of color. Federal agents are relying more on these flawed technologies than government-recognized forms of identification, which has resulted in numerous misidentifications by federal officers resulting in wrongful detentions and arrests. Government officials and agents have said that they are “building a database” and have been recorded telling people that the government will treat them as domestic terrorists. These uses of facial recognition technology are unconstitutional violations of our First and Fourth Amendment rights.”