Aggregator

The major retailer will be leaving the town later this month

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Border Patrol is running secretive predictive policing units that analyze Americans' financial activity and other data, then feed that intelligence to local police who pull people over who are not suspected of any specific crime, but which the government thinks may be worth searching, 404 Media has found. The units, the name of which 404 Media is revealing here for the first time, are called Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT). In one case, a PITT analyzed the financial activity of a man who was driving across Montana, and local authorities stopped him under the pretense of an obstructed license plate and charged him with a DUI. 404 Media identified one PITT in the Spokane Sector, Washington, which polices the U.S. border with Canada, and another in the Laredo Sector, Texas, which polices the border with Mexico. The findings add to an Associated Press investigation from last year which found Border Patrol was using automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) as part of the same wide-spanning predictive policing program. "The bottom line is genuine probable cause cannot be synthetically generated," Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center For Democracy & Technology, told 404 Media in an email. Here Border Patrol seems to be "using parallel construction to cloak the reason behind its car stops in secrecy. If we can't meaningfully review and evaluate these systems, we can't trust them," he added. [...] The DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows that Border Patrol is analyzing the financial activity of Americans to find people to pull over. The Associated Press's investigation found the predictive policing program is also heavily using ALPRs to track potential targets' movements. It is not clear how exactly Border Patrol is monitoring Americans' financial activity. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) declined to answer what financial activity the agency was monitoring, and whether it obtained a warrant or not. A CBP spokesperson told 404 Media in an email: "U.S. Border Patrol uses intelligence-informed analysis and planning to support national security operations, allocate resources, and help identify potential threats and bad actors to public safety. These efforts are conducted consistent with applicable law, policy, privacy protections, and oversight requirements." The statement continued: "For operational security reasons, we do not discuss specific analytical methods, data sources, targeting criteria, investigative techniques, system capabilities, or deployment details. Public disclosure of such information could compromise law enforcement operations and investigations as well as creating safety risks for agents and the public." Rob Frommer, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, told 404 Media: "The government's increasing use of mass surveillance -- whether that surveillance comes via ALPRs, financial records, or the like -- coupled with predictive policing is a recipe for tyranny. We fought a revolution for the idea that we are citizens, not subjects. Yet schemes like CBP's Predictive Intelligence Targeting Team treat all Americans as if they are potential suspects. This is not just wrong, it's unconstitutional, and IJ will keep pushing courts and Congress to end this attack on Americans' security."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SPONSORED FEATURE: With regulators tightening rules and attack surfaces widening, meeting-room kit must bake in security without pushing users toward workarounds

Dr Anna Stone, a former Department of Defense research technician, was just 38 in 2016 when an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy ruptured, causing her to bleed to death in a hospital.

Health fanatic' Aaron Campbell, of Retford, Nottinghamshire, was discovered in his hotel in March last year when he failed to check out ahead of a flight back to the UK.

Rhian Sugden has revealed she was 'spat at' and had her 'windscreen smashed' at the time her sexting scandal with Vernon Kay came to light.

Greater Anglia passengers on the Norwich and Stansted Airport via Cambridge line are facing delays after an unexploded bomb was found near a rail line.

Greater Anglia passengers on the Norwich and Stansted Airport via Cambridge line are facing delays after an unexploded bomb was found near a rail line.

Daniel Thomas's solidly middle-class upbringing appears to be very different from the men he claims to represent.

Departing flights from Stansted Airport are facing disruption due to a technical issue with air traffic control.

Departing flights from Stansted Airport are facing disruption due to a technical issue with air traffic control.

Children in Ceuta went back to school today, but what should be an exciting return for young students was clouded by fear. 

Helen Bloomfield, 52, was found unresponsive and covered in blood in the bedroom of her flat in Godrick Place, Braintree, in April 2024.

Penelope Cruz has made a chic debut at the Venice Film Festival as she prepares to premiere her new film with husband Javier Bardem.

Flight anxiety is something that affects around one in six people - but a new study suggests it's actually more dangerous on solid ground.

Claims follow scrutiny over monitors installing adware without user consent

It's been 27 years since Nigella Lawson first burst onto our screens. But as the Domestic Goddess returns to her first major UK television programme in six years, it appears she's hardly aged a day.

The Pussycat Dolls have been forced to slash the ticket prices of their upcoming UK shows to just £37, just months after they scrapped their US dates due to poor sales.

The body of a newborn baby, dubbed 'Baby April' by police, was found near Singleton Lake in Ashford on April 3, 1995.

Witham Amateur Operatic Society is putting on a musical adaptation of The Great British Bake Off.