DHS 'Predictive Policing' Unit Is Analyzing Americans' Financial Habits

someothherguyy

> Putting one of those participant’s phone numbers into WhatsApp reveals a profile picture of a law enforcement patch. A pawn with wings sits in the center, surrounded by lightning bolts. The patch reads, “Laredo Sector Tech Ops PITT,” indicating there is also a Predictive Intelligence Targeting Team in the Laredo Sector. https://www.aviatorgear.com/p-52057-laredo-sector-tech-ops-p...

polskibus

Minority Report anyone?

cucumber3732842

I remember back in ye olde dark ages when "big data" was the hot buzzword people of a certain bent couldn't get enough of this kind of stuff. Everyone was jacking off nonstop to the idea that we could just hoover up everyone's data ad then "efficiently" or "proactively" dispatch enforcement resources. People talked all sorts of big talk about stuff like cross referencing people's Home Depot spend with permit requirements, identifying small businesses that don't have healthy enough financials to be fully compliant, cross referencing invoices and delivery receipts to identify overloaded trucks, and generally finding all sorts of ways to fine the crap out of people for the pettiest of petty deviance. They considered this a noble goal. Everyone's head was too far up their asses to look at the magic crystal ball called "history" and realize that such systems and tactics would be used to go after <checks notes> weed dealers and brown people. Be careful what you wish for I guess.

lbrito

This comes straight out of Shoshana Zuboff's Surveillance Capitalism book. If you haven't: read it.

sfdlkj3jk342a

And that's why need to keep using cash and non-KYC'd crypto.

scarecrowbob

I understand that folks here think that the general anti-AI sentiments that can be found in some of US culture are often misguided. It's likely projection on my part but I have a deep suspicion that people understand that mass surveillance by the state is the main use case for all these LLMs, camera systems, and increasing large data centers. That certainly is my own worry, at least.

madaxe_again

I live in Europe. I’ve been under investigation for money laundering twice in the last three years - not because I’ve laundered a single dime, but because I have no discernible employment and move large capital sums around the globe almost constantly, and my bank accounts and tax returns inarguably look fucking weird. All 100% above board - I just made some good investments a while back. I even had the feds come knocking because they decided they needed to check I wasn’t trafficking narcotics. We had a nice chat, they decided they didn’t need to search the place, and six months later I got a letter confirming the case had been archived. Like one of the folks in the article, I had weed on me when they rocked up. Thankfully, in Europe, that’s basically just a “shrug” by law enforcement, unless you’ve got clear intent to distribute. From how it all went, they had quite clearly decided this was a waste of their fucking time before they even arrived. None of this is a good thing, and none of it is terribly new, either - reporting on finances has been going on for decades, but the integration is getting tighter. The main problem as I see it is that it has a horrendous false positive rate, and you end up with innocent folks like yours truly having to waste their time and energy proving that they are innocent of a crime that a machine dreamt up.

Havoc

One more reason the bail on the Visa/MC network asap

clumsysmurf

> The DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows that Border Patrol is analyzing the financial activity of Americans to find people to pull over... > It is not clear how exactly Border Patrol is monitoring Americans’ financial activity. Can anyone take a guess how they are monitoring financial activity?

Triphibian

This tells me you should always pay cash if you are having a beer.

m4ck_

I get the vibe they're using ALPRs to identify drivers, and then going from there to find crime? Seems like criminal investigations should start with an actual crime. At the minimum, I would think that there would need to be some suspicion of criminal involvement to obtain a warrant to get financial records. Apparently this administration considers driving down the interstate suspicious enough to toss the constitution out the window.

tiahura

FUD - the article literally says they don’t where the data came from.

politician

Another headline to trigger the comrades. Do you not realize that all countries monitor capital movement so that, for example, the rulings of their judiciaries are enforced?

miohtama

The violation of privacy and government breaking the social contract is why we must keep developing encryption and cryptocurrencies.

2OEH8eoCRo0

Buy something or get out! /s

ratelimitsteve

"We're proud to announce today that we're rolling out a trial phase of the Torment Nexus, as made famous in the scifi novel and accompanying film entitled 'Whatever You Do, Do Not Create the Torment Nexus'."

maxrev17

I saw a film about this…

Animats

Interstate transportation of marijuana is illegal in the US.[1] But why is DHS doing this? Stopping interstate drug trafficking is DEA's job, and DEA is in the Justice Department, not Homeland Security. Homeland Security should be looking for illegal aliens and labor contractors who move them. [1] https://federal-criminal.com/drugs/marijuana-cross-border-tr...

theahura

Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale. Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus.