U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is asking companies to provide information on “commercial Big Data and Ad Tech products” that would “directly support investigative activities,” according to a request for information published Friday in the Federal Register, the U.S. government’s official journal of agency notices, rulemakings and other public filings.
The statement said ICE is “working on an increasing volume of criminal, civil, regulatory and administrative records from numerous internal and external sources.” The agency is framing this request as a way to see what tools are currently available to facilitate manage and analyze information, saying it is looking at “existing and emerging” products that are “comparable to large forensic data and legal/risk analysis providers.”
Additionally, the post said, “The government is seeking to understand the current state of Ad Tech-compliant and location data services available to federal investigative and operational entities, given regulatory constraints and privacy expectations in support of investigative activities.” The filing provides little detail beyond this broad description: it does not specify what privacy laws or standards would apply, nor does it name any specific “Big Data and Ad Tech” services or providers of interest to ICE.
WIRED’s searches show that the term “ad tech” appears to have first appeared in a request for information, contract solicitation, or contract justification submitted by ICE to the Federal Register. The proposal highlights that the government is increasingly considering using tools originally developed for digital advertising and other commercial purposes for law enforcement and surveillance purposes.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment from WIRED.
ICE has previously used the term “big data” in justifying its agreement for Palantir to provide “unlimited operational and maintenance support for the FALCON system” and unlimited licenses for “Palantir Gotham.” Gotham is Palantir’s turnkey law enforcement investigative tool. The company provides ICE with a custom version of Gotham known as the “Investigative Case Management” system. FALCON is a tool within the customized Palantir system that ICE uses to “store, retrieve, analyze and visualize volumes of existing information” on current and previous investigations.
ICE has also previously purchased products that provide mobile location data, which is sometimes included in the information provided by companies that buy and sell information collected for online advertising. Advertising technical data may include, but is not constrained to, details about the device and applications an individual is using, their location and browsing activity.
ICE has bought commercial location data obtained from Webloc, a tool sold by Penlink. Webloc allows the user to collect information about mobile phones used in a specific area over a specific period of time. Users have the ability to filter the devices displayed by criteria such as whether their location has been collected via “GPS, Wi-Fi or IP address” or by “Apple and Android advertising identifiers” according to report 404 Media,
In recent years, ICE has done this as well bought licenses to employ Venntel, a data broker and subsidiary of Gravy Analytics that collects and sells consumer location data. In a Federal Register filing closing its deal with Venntel last year, ICE said its Enforcement and Disenforcement Division used the company’s software “to access information to accurately identify/obtain digital devices.”
In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission alleged that Venntel sold sensitive consumer location data without obtaining appropriate consent from individuals for commercial and government purposes. The FTC later banned Gravy Analytics and Venntel from “selling, disclosing, or using sensitive location data, except in limited national security or law enforcement circumstances.” (Gravy Analytics has not admitted or denied any of the allegations made by the FTC.)