MADDY VARNER DELL CAMERON SECURITY JAN 28, 2026 3:17 PM Here’s the Company That Sold DHS ICE’s Notorious Face Recognition App Immigration agents have used Mobile Fortify to scan the faces of countless people in the US—including many citizens. PHOTOGRAPH: MADISON SWART/GETTY IMAGES Get our Tracker: ICE newsletter to understand what’s happening and what’s coming next SIGN UP By signing up, you agree to our user agreement (including class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and acknowledge our privacy policy. You’ve read your last free article. The intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to 5 all-new premium newsletters—cancel anytime. START FREE TRIAL Already a subscriber? Sign In The intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to 5 all-new premium newsletters START FREE TRIAL You Might Also Like In your inbox: Sign up for our new Tracker: ICE newsletter TikTok now collects even more of your data Big Story: ICE pretends it’s a military force, but it would get soldiers killed Microdosing for depression works about as well as drinking coffee Watch: We raced in exoskeletons to see if they actually help Maddy Varner is a senior reporter for WIRED. In the past, she was an investigative data journalist at The Markup, where she brought numbers to stories about labor, education and politics. Before The Markup, she was a researcher at ProPublica, where she was on a team that won a Loeb ... Read More SENIOR WRITER, INVESTIGATIONS Dell Cameron is an investigative reporter from Texas covering privacy and national security. He's the recipient of multiple Society of Professional Journalists awards and is co-recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting. Previously, he was a senior reporter at Gizmodo and a staff writer for the Daily ... Read More SENIOR REPORTER, NATIONAL SECURITY TOPICS PRIVACY SURVEILLANCE CRIME POLICE NATIONAL SECURITY DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY IMMIGRATION IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT Don't Just Keep Up. Get Ahead Sign up for the Daily newsletter to get our biggest stories, handpicked for you each day. SIGN UP By signing up, you agree to our user agreement (including class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and acknowledge our privacy policy. READ MORE Deepfake ‘Nudify’ Technology Is Getting Darker—and More Dangerous Sexual deepfakes continue to get more sophisticated, capable, easy to access, and perilous for millions of women who are abused with the technology. MATT BURGESS Elon Musk’s Grok ‘Undressing’ Problem Isn’t Fixed X has placed more restrictions on Grok’s ability to generate explicit AI images, but tests show that the updates have created a patchwork of limitations that fail to fully address the issue. MATT BURGESS ICE Is Using Palantir’s AI Tools to Sort Through Tips ICE has been using an AI-powered Palantir system to summarize tips sent to its tip line since last spring, according to a newly released Homeland Security document. CAROLINE HASKINS ICE Details a New Minnesota-Based Detention Network That Spans 5 States Internal ICE planning documents propose spending up to $50 million on a privately run network capable of shipping immigrants in custody hundreds of miles across the Upper Midwest. DELL CAMERON CBP Wants AI-Powered ‘Quantum Sensors’ for Finding Fentanyl in Cars US Customs and Border Protection is paying General Dynamics to create prototype “quantum sensors,” to be used with an AI database to detect fentanyl and other narcotics. CAROLINE HASKINS An AI Toy Exposed 50,000 Logs of Its Chats With Kids to Anyone With a Gmail Account AI chat toy company Bondu left its web console almost entirely unprotected. Researchers who accessed it found nearly all the conversations children had with the company’s stuffed animals. ANDY GREENBERG Inside OpenAI’s Raid on Thinking Machines Lab OpenAI is planning to bring over more researchers from Thinking Machines Lab after nabbing two cofounders, a source familiar with the situation says. Plus, the latest efforts to automate jobs with AI. MAXWELL ZEFF Google DeepMind Staffers Ask Leaders to Keep Them ‘Physically Safe’ From ICE A federal agent allegedly tried to enter Google’s Cambridge campus in the fall, WIRED has learned. Now, staffers want policies that protect them from immigration officials. MAXWELL ZEFF Grok Is Being Used to Mock and Strip Women in Hijabs and Saris A substantial number of AI images generated or edited with Grok are targeting women in religious and cultural clothing. KAT TENBARGE What to Do if ICE Invades Your Neighborhood With federal agents storming the streets of American communities, there’s no single right way to approach this dangerous moment. But there are steps you can take to stay safe—and have an impact. MADDY VARNER The State-Led Crackdown on Grok and xAI Has Begun At least 37 attorneys general for US states and territories are taking action against xAI after Grok generated a flood of nonconsensual sexual images of women and minors. MADDY VARNER ICE and CBP’s Face-Recognition App Can’t Actually Verify Who People Are ICE has used Mobile Fortify to identify immigrants and citizens alike over 100,000 times, by one estimate. It wasn't built to work like that—and only got approved after DHS abandoned its own privacy rules. MADDY VARNER