The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog office has launched an audit of the agency’s privacy practices amid allegations that DHS and its components have used facial recognition tools and other technologies to collect data broadly and violate civil liberties. The audit, according to a Feb. 5 letter from DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari and published by Virginia Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, started the previous day, and is titled “DHS’ Security of Biometric Data and Personally Identifiable Information (PII).” “The objective of the audit is to determine how DHS and its components collect or obtain PII and biometric data related to immigration enforcement efforts and the extent to which that data is managed, shared, and secured in accordance with law, regulation, and Departmental policy,” Cuffari wrote. Cuffari’s letter does not specify the audit’s scope or which agencies, technologies, programs or policies would be scrutinized. In response to questions from CyberScoop, the DHS IG office indicated that the probe will initially focus on the activities of two department sub-components: Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the Office of Biometric Identity Management. “We will begin with OBIM, ICE and could include other components of the Department,” a spokesperson for DHS IG said in an email in response to questions about the audit’s scope. ICE has become the most visible part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to expand data collection on Americans. The agency – along with Customs and Border Protection officers, who are sometimes mistaken for ICE agents – has played a leading role , helping build a large facial recognition database that DHS can use to identify not only people targeted in immigration raids, but also protestors and legal observers . The Office of Biometric Identity Management is responsible for overseeing these biometric databases—managing, storing, and analyzing information on Americans such as photos, fingerprints, iris scans, license plate numbers and other identifying data. Cuffari told the senators that the probe “will address a number of the questions you provided” in their own Jan. 29 letter urging the IG office to investigate “immigration procurement activities” at the department for constitutional and privacy law violations against Americans. In that letter , Kaine and Warner highlight several concerns across multiple component agencies, including the mass collection and storage of facial recognition and license plate data, expanding the types and amount of biometric data that can be collected by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the hiring of 30 “social media surveillance contractors” to build profiles of individuals for immigration enforcement. DHS’ “proven ambivalence toward observing and upholding constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms of Americans and noncitizens, including freedom of speech and equal protection under the law, leaves us with little confidence that these new and powerful tools are being used responsibly,” the senators wrote. The Senators urged the Inspector General’s office to brief them with a detailed accounting of how the Trump administration has altered DHS data privacy practices and “the manner and methods by which DHS stores and uses data that contains personally identifying information.” They also asked investigators to examine how DHS and ICE ensure their actions comply with the Constitution; how biometric and other personal data is used to detain people; whether the agencies have information-sharing agreements with social media companies; and what data they obtain from third-party data brokers . The post DHS privacy probe will focus on biometric tracking by ICE, OBIM appeared first on CyberScoop .