Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on controversial surveillance technology once banned by Facebook and WhatsApp for abusive data harvesting and user tracking, raising serious civil liberties concerns as the agency expands its digital intelligence toolkit amid new mass deportation plans under the Trump administration.
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Background
In 2021, Meta — the parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp — banned a surveillance firm called Cobwebs Technologies after discovering the company had utilized hundreds of fake accounts to scrape private and public user data across its platforms. Cobwebs, founded by former Israeli intelligence cyber operatives, was found to have targeted activists, opposition politicians, and government officials in Hong Kong and Mexico, prompting Meta to remove the company’s access entirely. Despite the ban, ICE has since spent over $5 million on Cobwebs’ tools, including a $2 million purchase this week for its AI-powered social monitoring product Tangles.
The Evidence
According to government procurement records and investigative reporting, ICE’s newly acquired tool Tangles uses artificial intelligence to scour both the open internet and the dark web for intelligence relevant to law enforcement. As described in filings with the Texas state government by PenLink — which acquired Cobwebs in a 2023 merger — “Tangles automatically ingests historical data from multiple communication channels, mobile forensics, internet-based communications, location data, financial records and web intelligence.” The system then builds profiles of individuals by mining posts, contacts, geolocation history, and event attendance, and uses facial recognition to match subjects across diverse data sets.
A related product, WebLoc, analyzes location data from mobile devices, enabling authorities to monitor patterns at protests, rallies, or other large gatherings — raising alarms about the potential for sweeping surveillance of lawful political activity.
Deep Dive / Verification
Law enforcement agencies beyond ICE are also adopting similar technologies. In Virginia late last year, local authorities reportedly contracted Tangles for $35,000 a year to utilize its AI-driven face detection and search capabilities. While ICE claims the technology is vital for tracking undocumented immigrants, human traffickers, and child exploitation rings, the scope of data ingestion — including sources leaked or stolen by hackers and shared on the dark web — potentially includes bank records, health information, and online passwords. Critics argue this level of cross-referenced data mining goes far beyond traditional investigative tools and into indiscriminate, warrantless surveillance.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s senior investigative researcher, Beryl Lipton, told Forbes that the expansion of ICE’s contract “underlines the federal government’s enthusiasm for indiscriminate and warrantless data collection on as many people as possible,” and warned that tools like Tangles “can absolutely assist ICE in turning law-abiding citizens and protestors into targets of the federal government.”
Cobwebs’ own historical materials illustrate the capabilities now being acquired: Tangles was previously marketed for monitoring movements like Black Lives Matter protests and analyzing January 6 participants — software that automatically collected, analyzed, and visualized online activity to flag “persons of interest” and track potentially violent events.
Prophetic Context
Scripture gives sober warnings about systems of pervasive surveillance and control: “He causes all, both small and great… to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark…” (Revelation 13:16–17, NASB 1977). While today’s technologies are not that ultimate system, the rapid accumulation of tools that tie financial information, location history, online speech, and personal associations into unified profiles reflects the infrastructure of unprecedented oversight and social control — exactly what prophetic warnings describe.
Strategic Implications / Consequences
This emerging federal surveillance apparatus has broad implications. First, it blurs the line between legitimate investigative work and mass data collection that could ensnare innocent citizens. Second, the use of dark web and leaked information — often hacked or stolen — raises legal and ethical questions about the provenance and reliability of the data. Third, the deployment of AI tools built to monitor protests, political engagement, and social associations could chill free speech and assembly in a democratic republic.
ICE’s surveillance shopping spree doesn’t stop with Cobwebs. Recent contracts include Skydio drones and a robotic device capable of climbing stairs and opening doors. The agency also purchased a rival system called Fivecast Onyx, another AI-enhanced open-source intelligence platform, as part of a $4.1 million contract signed under the Biden administration.
Conclusion
As ICE accelerates its acquisition of high-tech surveillance tools once banned by private platforms, Americans must ask whether the pursuit of security now comes at the cost of privacy and constitutional rights. When federal agencies adopt technologies that can profile, track, and monitor virtually any online or offline activity without clear judicial oversight, we cross a threshold that should concern every defender of freedom.
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