Senate Democrats introduced a bill, the "ICE Out of Our Faces Act," that would ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from using facial recognition technology and other biometric surveillance systems, according to Ars Technica. The proposed legislation, which would also mandate the deletion of previously collected data, comes as concerns grow over the use of such technology by immigration agencies.
The bill, as reported by Ars Technica, would make it unlawful for immigration officers to acquire, possess, access, or use any biometric surveillance system within the United States. It would also prohibit the use of information derived from such systems operated by other entities. The ban extends beyond facial recognition to cover other biometric surveillance technologies, such as voice recognition.
This move follows scrutiny of existing facial recognition practices. Wired reported that the face-recognition app Mobile Fortify, used by immigration agents across the US, is not designed to reliably identify people in the streets. The Department of Homeland Security launched Mobile Fortify in the spring of 2025 to determine or verify the identities of individuals stopped or detained by DHS officers, according to records reviewed by Wired. The rollout was explicitly linked to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, which called for a crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
The introduction of the "ICE Out of Our Faces Act" reflects a broader debate about the use of technology by law enforcement and government agencies. The potential for misuse and the impact on privacy are central to the discussion.
In other technology news, the search engine Bing blocked approximately 1.5 million independent websites hosted on Neocities, according to Ars Technica. Neocities, founded in 2013, is a platform that allows users to design free websites without relying on standardized templates.
Meanwhile, the AI community continues to monitor the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence. MIT Technology Review highlighted a graph from METR, an AI research nonprofit, that suggests certain AI capabilities are developing at an exponential rate. The latest model releases have outperformed the already impressive trend.
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