Immigration and Customs Enforcement has become one of the most technologically equipped law enforcement agencies in the country. Whether you're an immigrant, an ally, a protester, or just someone who values knowing how your data is used, understanding what ICE can access — and how — is critical.

This isn't speculation. It's based on publicly reported government contracts, procurement records, and investigative journalism.

The Surveillance Stack

ICE's toolkit in 2026 includes commercial data brokers, facial recognition systems, license plate readers, phone forensics tools, spyware, social media monitoring, and AI-powered predictive platforms. Let's break down each one.

Commercial Location Data

In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that the government needs a warrant to access cellphone location data from phone companies. Federal agencies found a workaround: they buy location data from commercial brokers instead.

These brokers obtain location data from weather apps, mobile games, and other apps whose users consent to tracking in their terms of service. ICE purchased a subscription to Penlink's Webloc database, which allows agents to "geofence" a specific area and track all phones within it — without a warrant.

This means if your phone has apps that access your location, your movements may be available to federal agencies through a commercial purchase, not a court order.

Facial Recognition

ICE signed a $3.75 million contract with Clearview AI in September 2025 — the agency's largest purchase of the technology to date. Clearview AI's database contains billions of photos scraped from the internet, including social media, news sites, and public databases.

Agents can now use cellphone apps in the field to photograph someone's face and run it against these databases in real time. Investigative reporting has documented agents using these tools on teenagers who weren't carrying identification.

Palantir developed a tool called ELITE that allows agents to create instant dossiers on individuals in the field, including a probability score for whether a person will be at a particular location at a given time.

License Plate Readers

ALPR (Automated License Plate Reader) technology captures and stores images of license plates, linking them to time and location data. ICE uses this technology to track vehicle movements across the country. The data is stored in databases that can reconstruct where a vehicle has been over weeks, months, or years.

Flock Safety, one of the largest ALPR providers, operates cameras in over 5,000 communities and works with nearly 5,000 law enforcement agencies. DeFlock.me has mapped over 76,000 license plate reader cameras across the United States.

Phone Forensics and Spyware

ICE renewed an $11 million contract with Cellebrite and signed a $3 million contract with Magnet Forensics (makers of Graykey). These tools allow agents to unlock a confiscated phone and extract a complete image of all data — apps, location history, photos, notes, call records, text messages, and even Signal and WhatsApp messages.

ICE also resumed a $2 million contract with Paragon, the manufacturer of Graphite spyware, which can infiltrate phones remotely and harvest messages from encrypted chat apps without the user's knowledge.

Data Sharing Agreements

ICE has signed data-sharing agreements with the Social Security Administration, the IRS, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Under its SSA agreement, ICE could request up to 50,000 records per month, including addresses, banking data, and contact information. Reports indicate ICE requested over a million records from the IRS in the first four months of the agreement.

Social Media Monitoring

ICE has purchased social media monitoring tools that analyze public posts, connections, and activity patterns. These tools are marketed for monitoring protests and public gatherings — a capability that extends well beyond immigration enforcement.

What You Can Do

You cannot make yourself invisible to a federal agency with a multi-billion-dollar surveillance budget. But you can significantly reduce your exposure in the commercial data ecosystem that feeds these tools. The key insight is this: much of what ICE accesses isn't government data — it's commercial data that anyone can buy. That's the data you can actually control.

Reduce Your Location Footprint

Review every app on your phone that has location access. Disable location permissions for apps that don't need it — especially weather apps, games, shopping apps, and social media. These are the apps whose data ends up in commercial location databases.

On iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services. Review each app individually.

On Android: Settings → Location → App Permissions. Set non-essential apps to "Don't Allow."

Consider using a VPN on your phone to mask your IP address from apps and websites.

Remove Yourself from Data Brokers

People-search sites like Spokeo, BeenVerified, WhitePages, and Radaris aggregate your name, address, phone number, relatives, and more into searchable profiles. This information is commercially available to anyone — including government agencies that purchase it.

Opt out of these sites individually. Each has a different process, and many require you to verify your identity to complete the removal. There are over 500 data broker sites, and new ones appear regularly.

Limit Facial Recognition Exposure

Minimize public-facing photos online. Review your social media privacy settings and restrict who can see your photos. Opt out of facial recognition databases where possible — Clearview AI offers opt-outs for residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Utah, and Virginia.

Remove EXIF metadata (including GPS coordinates) from any photos before sharing them online.

Secure Your Phone

Use a strong passcode (not biometrics alone — courts have held that police can compel fingerprint/face unlock but not passcode disclosure in some jurisdictions). Enable full-disk encryption. Keep your operating system updated. Be selective about which apps you install.

If you're at a protest or in a situation where your phone might be confiscated, consider leaving it at home or using a secondary device with minimal data.

Audit Your Digital Footprint

Search for yourself. Google your name, run your phone number through people-search sites, check if your photos appear in reverse image searches. Understanding what's out there is the first step to reducing it.

Who This Affects

These tools don't only affect undocumented immigrants. Commercial surveillance infrastructure doesn't check citizenship status. If your data is in a broker's database, it's accessible. If your face is in a photo online, it's searchable. If your phone has location-sharing apps, your movements may be tracked.

The tools built for immigration enforcement are increasingly being used for domestic surveillance — monitoring protesters, tracking vehicles, building dossiers on citizens and non-citizens alike. Digital privacy isn't a partisan issue. It's a structural one.

The most effective thing you can do is reduce your presence in the commercial data ecosystem. Government agencies buy what's commercially available. If your data isn't for sale, it's harder to access.