{"id":48324,"date":"2026-01-24T22:40:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=48324"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:40:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:40:45","slug":"ice-asks-companies-about-ad-tech-and-big-data-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/01\/24\/ice-asks-companies-about-ad-tech-and-big-data-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE Asks Companies About \u2018Ad Tech and Big Data\u2019 Tools It Could Use in Investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is asking companies to provide information about \u201ccommercial Big Data and Ad Tech\u201d products that would \u201cdirectly support investigations activities,\u201d according to a request for information posted on Friday in the Federal Register, the US government\u2019s official journal for agency notices, rulemaking, and other public filings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The posting says that ICE is \u201cworking with increasing volumes of criminal, civil, and regulatory, administrative documentation from numerous internal and external sources.\u201d The agency frames the request as a way to survey what tools are currently available to help manage and analyze the information ICE has, saying it is looking at \u201cexisting and emerging\u201d products that are \u201ccomparable to large providers of investigative data and legal\/risk analytics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">In addition, the entry says \u201cthe Government is seeking to understand the current state of Ad Tech compliant and location data services available to federal investigative and operational entities, considering regulatory constraints and privacy expectations of support investigations activities.\u201d The filing offers little detail beyond that broad description: It does not spell out which regulations or privacy standards would apply, nor does it name any specific \u201cBig Data and Ad Tech\u201d services or vendors ICE is interested in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The entry appears to be the first time that the term \u201cad tech\u201d has appeared in a request for information, contract solicitation, or contract justification posted by ICE in the Federal Registry, according to searches by WIRED. The request underscores how tools originally developed for digital advertising and other commercial purposes are increasingly being considered for use by the government for law enforcement and surveillance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment from WIRED.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">ICE has previously used the term \u201cbig data\u201d in a contract justification for Palantir to provide \u201cunlimited operations and maintenance support of the FALCON system\u201d and unlimited licenses for \u201cPalantir Gotham.\u201d Gotham is Palantir\u2019s off-the-shelf investigative tool for law enforcement. The company provides a custom version of Gotham to ICE known as the \u201cInvestigative Case Management\u201d system. FALCON is a tool within the customized Palantir system that ICE uses to &#8220;store, search, analyze, and visualize volumes of existing information&#8221; about current and former investigations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">ICE has also previously purchased products that provide mobile location data, which is sometimes among the information provided by companies that buy and sell information collected for online advertising. Ad tech data can include details about the device and apps a person is using, where they are located, and their browsing activity, among other information.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">ICE has purchased commercial location data obtained from Webloc, a tool sold by the company Penlink. Webloc allows a user to collect information about the mobile phones being used within a specific area during a particular time period. Users have the ability to filter the devices displayed according to criteria such as whether their location was gathered via \u201cGPS, WiFi, or IP address,\u201d or by their \u201cApple and Android advertising identifiers,\u201d according to reporting by 404 Media,<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">In several recent years, ICE has also purchased licenses to use Venntel, a data broker and subsidiary of the firm Gravy Analytics that collects and sells consumer location data. In a Federal Registry entry closing out a contract with Venntel last year, ICE reported that its Enforcement and Removal Operations division had used the company\u2019s software \u201cto access\/gain information to accurately identify digital devices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The Federal Trade Commission alleged in 2024 that Venntel sold sensitive consumer location data without getting proper consent from people for commercial and government purposes. The FTC later barred Gravy Analytics and Venntel \u201cfrom selling, disclosing, or using sensitive location data except in limited circumstances involving national security or law enforcement.\u201d (Gravy Analytics did not admit nor deny any of the allegations made by the FTC.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#ICE #Asks #Companies #Tech #Big #Data #Tools #Investigations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is asking companies to provide information about \u201ccommercial Big Data and Ad Tech\u201d products that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48326,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48324\/revisions\/48326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}