A consistent theme in our research on DHS DNA collection is that there is no oversight. No one is checking the work of DHS agents in the streets, who are the ones wielding this awesome authority.

Next up from our findings from this year’s RaidingTheGenome.org update: the numbers. DHS has now captured the DNA of more than 3.3 million people, with ICE driving the majority of that growth.

This year’s update to Raiding the Genome gives us the most striking evidence yet that DHS’s DNA collection program is not about immigration enforcement at all, but about building a national criminal database. Read the report at raidingthegenome.org

NEW: In 2025 ICE obtained DNA from nearly one million people and funneled it into an FBI criminal database. The collection likely included DNA from young children and was backed by the threat of criminal prosecution. The raw genetic material is stored indefinitely. Free to read:

ICE Collected Nearly 1 Million People’s DNA Last Year—Including Young Children

Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime are in an FBI criminal database forever.

wired.com

Today, we’re releasing an update to our 2024 report, Raiding the Genome, and it confirms what we feared: the federal gov’t’s DHS-driven genetic surveillance program is bigger, faster, and more clearly unconstitutional than ever.

On June 4, we welcomed nearly 100 researchers, advocates, technologists, practitioners, individuals with lived expertise, agency leaders, and policymakers to the Georgetown Law campus for a conversation about the growing role of technology in child welfare (or family policing) practice.

CA legislators started trying to regulate high-risk gov’t uses of algorithmic technology through a bill aimed at transparency. They failed. Dir. of Research & Advocacy @sglabe.bsky.social & Center on Resilience and Digital Justice Research Fellow @vashetc.blacksky.app explain why in CalMatters:

CalMatters@calmatters.org · 2w ago

Opinion | Systems like these mine sensitive personal data to automate what can be life-and-death government decisions for people, such as whether they will be granted cash assistance to feed their families... cal.news/4vJp9Rv 📝 Victoria Copeland & Stevie Glaberson

Just about a week left to send in your proposals for the Life After Data conference!

Fun to see the Library of Babel Group zine featured on @dairinstitute.bsky.social’s guest zone page. zines.dair-institute.org/guest-zines

The DAIR Zine Library

A collection of zines from the DAIR Institute

zines.dair-institute.org

👀👀

We’re excited to have a new incredible Distinguished Fellow join our team! Please join us in welcoming @hypervisible.blacksky.app! Read more about his work here: www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...

Please join us in welcoming our new Distinguished Fellow, Sushma Raman! She's an experienced social change innovator, leader, and strategic advisor. We're excited for her to join us. Read more about her on our website: www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...:

Last week, SoCal’s Monterey Park passed the nation’s first voter-approved permanent citywide data center ban. Communities rejecting data centers, “also targets of ICE raids, are drawing connections between the two,” writes @ehtse.bsky.social in a new op-ed for @coloradoboulevard.bsky.social

Data Centers Are Powering ICE: Communities Are Pushing Back

GUEST OPINION From Monterey Park to City of Industry, Montebello, El Monte, Covina, and more, data center protests have spread across the SGV. These communities, also targets of I

coloradoboulevard.net

Don’t forget to submit your abstract for our Life After Data conference, happening at Georgetown Law in October. Deadline is about a month away! www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-tech...

New: Regretful cities are literally covering their Flock cameras with black trash bags because they cannot figure out how to immediately exit their surveillance contracts or get the cameras taken down: www.404media.co/cities-are-c...

Cities Are Covering Flock Cameras With Trash Bags

Regretful cities aren't sure how to cancel their surveillance contracts, so they are literally covering their cameras.

404media.co

Our ED Emily Tucker recently wrote a chapter for the Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Governance and the Law. She argues that algorithmic tech necessarily makes systems of policing & punishment less just, even if the tech is good & even if the society using it is too. Read her whole chapter here:

The Algorithm Can’t Solve for Justice:: Why Banning Algorithmic Tech in Systems of Policing and Punishment Is a Moderate Reform

Abstract. Most legal and policy conversations that challenge the use of algorithmic technologies in criminal legal systems focus on the ways that such tech

doi.org

Our Associate Marianna Poyares recently spoke with @thewarhorsenews.bsky.social about the multiple technologies deployed around the US-Mexico border. Read all about the current state of border tech here: thewarhorse.org/southern-bor...

Our ED Emily Tucker spoke with Natalie Alexander of the AIxMultilateralism podcast about why “AI governance” is a fool’s game without radical limitations on corporate data practices. Listen to the whole episode here:

In response to Georgetown University’s recent decision to give students, faculty, and staff licenses for the Google chatbot, our Executive Director Emily Tucker wrote an open letter urging students to resist the co-optation of their education by the tech industry.

Georgetown’s English Dept’s annual Lacay Lecture is on “AI Resistance and Refusal in Higher Education” on April 13th at 5 pm.

The Intercept published an article about immigration authorities in Minnesota intimidating peaceful, legal observers at their own homes. The article mentioned our American Dragnet report, referencing how ICE can use driver’s license data to surveil U.S. adults. Read the article here:

Federal Agents Are Intimidating Legal Observers at Their Homes: “They Know Where You Live”

Immigration authorities in Minnesota have identified legal observers by name and address, and in some cases showed up at their homes.

theintercept.com

We’ve seen the 📷s: ICE agents (paid) looming over (unpaid) TSA agents as lines snake into airport parking lots. What you probably haven’t realized is while ICE wastes taxpayer $$ snacking in airport food courts, staff responsible for letting the public know what the agency is up to are MIA.

📢 📢 📢 TODAY: Join us for a screening of “Digital Detention” followed by a Q&A with director Carolina Sanchez Boe and Professor Denise Gilman. Register here: tinyurl.com/digitaldeten...

Tech & Society "Digital Detention" Movie Screening

Join us for a screening of Digital Detention and Q&A with Carolina Sanchez-Boe (director and producer) and Denise Gilman (Georgetown Law/UT Texas) on Thursday, March 26th at 3:00 p.m! Digital Detentio...

tinyurl.com

Center on Privacy & Technology@georgetownprivacy.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The Privacy Center will be hosting a screening of "Digital Detention" and subsequent Q&A with director and producer Caroliana Sanchez-Boe and Denise Gilman (Georgetown Law/UT Texas).

Our Faculty Advisor Laura Moy recently spoke as a guest on the Science Friday podcast to explain how ICE uses technology to track individuals via their phones. Georgetown Law Professor Moy provides key insights to how personal data can be made vulnerable to data brokers. Listen here:

Why Worry About My Data If I Have Nothing To Hide? | Science Friday | WNYC Studios

As ICE cracks down in Minneapolis and across the country, reporters and privacy advocates have drawn attention to how the agency is using technology: scanning people’s faces without c...

wnycstudios.org

📢📢📢 Reminder! Next Thursday, March 26, at 3 PM we will be hosting a screening of “Digital Detention” followed by a Q&A with the director Carolina Sanchez Boe and Professor Denise Gilman, moderated by Marianna Poyares.

Center on Privacy & Technology@georgetownprivacy.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The Privacy Center will be hosting a screening of "Digital Detention" and subsequent Q&A with director and producer Caroliana Sanchez-Boe and Denise Gilman (Georgetown Law/UT Texas).

Our ED Emily Tucker, was quoted in the Guardian regarding the potential capacity for DHS body camera footage to be weaponized against immigrants and their communities. To learn more about the role of Axon in supplying surveillance technologies to governments agencies like ICE, read the article here:

Top US body-camera maker reports record revenue amid Trump immigration crackdown

Axon sees ‘major opportunities’ as Congress proposes $20m for ICE body cameras but data privacy experts warn of risks

theguardian.com

One of our Distinguished Fellows, Anil Kalhan reviewed David M. Rabban’s book, “Academic Freedom: From Professional Norm to First Amendment Right” in an article for Academe Magazine. Read the article here:

Academic Freedom's Uneven First Amendment Path

Academic Freedom: From Professional Norm to First Amendment Right by David M. Rabban. Harvard University Press, 2024.

aaup.org

The Privacy Center will be hosting a screening of "Digital Detention" and subsequent Q&A with director and producer Caroliana Sanchez-Boe and Denise Gilman (Georgetown Law/UT Texas).

On March 6, Lawfare, @georgetownprivacy.bsky.social, and @gtowntechlaw.bsky.social marked the 40th anniversary of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act with a live event. You can now watch a recording of this event–and read the papers prepared for the event–here:

In the Georgetown Law Technology Review, our advisory board member Ignacio Cofone published an article detailing how the privacy paradox—that people say they’re concerned for their safety but then disclose information—is actually not what it seems.