ICE is Paying Millions to Spy on People’s Communications

Surveillance images from East German Stasi archives (source)

by Thomas Neuburger

This is yet another reminder that we live in a nation in which citizen surveillance is assumed, with our permission, to be a infinitely expandable right possessed by government.

Even ICE, the immigration control service, spies on Americans, and has done so since at least 2014 under President Obama.

This surveillance takes two forms. First, ICE contracts with a major private company to engage directly in wiretapping and other targeted surveillance. Second, ICE buys and collects data from private big data aggregators — like Thomson Reuters — to add to what it knows about its enemies. Yes, that Thomson Reuters, the news people. Seems they're part of the big-data spook-state industry as well.

From Privacy International (emphasis mine):

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency at the centre of carrying out President Trump’s “zero tolerance” approach to immigration enforcement and family separation, has for years been contracting a US surveillance company to intercept peoples’ communications across the United States.

The wide potential scope for the use of the powers raises concerns about their use for the real-time surveillance of people, families, and communities caught up in Trump’s immigration crackdown, including in sanctuary cities that have otherwise limited the extent to which local law enforcement are allowed to cooperate with federal immigration agents.

In 2014, US-based surveillance and analytics company, JSI Telecom, signed a contract with ICE worth over $19.7 million for annual support, operation, and maintenance of its “Title III digital collection system”, according to US procurement records. The latest contract is due to end in January 2020.

The enforcement agency intercepts wire, oral, and electronic communications—which includes the contents of calls, text messages, and emails—pursuant to judicial orders issued under Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Street Acts of 1968 and subsequent amendments.

A judge can issue such an order when there is probable cause to believe that particular people committed particular felony offenses. Since 2014, federal and state authorities have submitted 14,683 applications for wiretap orders to judges, who have granted all but three of them.

How broad is the scope of ICE's surveillance? Very broad:

Such a wide scope raises huge concerns that judges and authorities could use such orders to monitor and criminalise millions of Americans, including almost six million citizen children under the age of 18 living with a parent or family member who is undocumented. ICE has said it deported 256,000 people in 2018, a record amount, including 5,571 unaccompanied children. ICE is also known to be monitoring people sympathetic to enforcing immigrants’ rights, labelling them as “Anti-Trump” protestors. It was reported earlier this week that ICE is locking up thousands of people it has detained in solitary confinement by exploiting measures supposed to be used as a last resort.

JSI Telecom, a company you've likely never heard of, is a big deal in the government-corporate surveillance game:

JSI Telecom, which describes itself as a “leading provider of communications intercept collection solution”, is one of over 500 companies worldwide which profits from governments' demand for advanced surveillance tools. In addition to ICE, JSI has surveillance contracts with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It has also received payments from the State Department for projects in Guatemala and Indonesia, part of a broader programme of US agencies using aid and other public money to empower foreign security agencies with surveillance capabilities.

ICE also buys big data datasets from major third-party data aggregators like the news organization Thomson Reuters:

Last year, media multinational Thomson Reuters defended its contracts with ICE after Privacy International highlighted the company had made nearly $50 million from selling the agency access to a “vast collection of public and proprietary records”. This includes phone records, consumer and credit bureau data, healthcare provider content, utilities data, DMV records, World-Check listings, business data, data from social networks and chatrooms, and “live access to more than 7 billion license plate detections”.

Big data and its abuse is not your friend. It's used by the powerful for the obvious purpose, to suppress and arrest their enemies. But it's also used for a more insidious purpose — to influence U.S. elections in their favor.

Yes, there are now several ways to buy elections. Directly purchasing candidates is just one of them. Pervasive, unnoticed, constant, soft propaganda, visited on the whole population to promote the candidates and causes of the wealthy, is another.

Welcome to the world that Americans continue to allow themselves to live within.
  

The NYT has to make money somehow, and explores ways to charge users of its website

This afternoon Salon.com's Katharine Mieszkowski reported (with useful links in the onsite version):

JULY 23, 2009 2:37 PM
N.Y. Times talks about online pay plans

By Katharine Mieszkowski: Details about the New York Times' plans to charge readers of its Web site for access are trickling out. In a conference call to discuss earnings today, CEO Janet Robinson described two possible payment scenarios -- a "meter model" or a "Times club membership."

Notably, the two models the Times is considering seem diametrically opposed in their approach. "A metered model, in which readers would be charged based on how many pages they view, would effectively create a negative incentive for readership, depressing the value of the paper's online advertising," writes Jeff Bercovici on AOL's finance site. "A membership model, on the other hand, would lavish perks on the most enthusiastic readers -- perhaps invitation-only live events, or online chats with op-ed columnists."

The Times reported that Internet advertising revenue in the second quarter fell 15.5 percent compared to the same period a year-ago, according to Editor and Publisher. But the Internet now accounts for about 21 percent of the Times' advertising revenue, up from about 18 percent last year.

Reuters chimed in:

New York Times profit rises, studies web access charge

Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:43pm EDT

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times reported higher quarterly profit on cost cuts on Thursday, beating forecasts, but advertising revenue fell 30 percent and a recovery for U.S. newspaper publishers still looks a long way off.

The Times confirmed it is studying ways to charge for access to its popular website at a time when no clear path has emerged for newspaper publishers to switch primarily to the Internet in a sustainable way.

But the company did not address multiple reports that it is trying to sell the money-losing Boston Globe newspaper. It did say it hopes to sell its stake in the holding company that owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team by the end of the year.

Many publishers reported similar results this week and their shares have sunk to historic lows as the recession and the trend of readers abandoning newspapers for the Web sucks away precious ad revenue.

Publishers have slashed jobs and trimmed expenses, making media watchers fearful over the quality of journalism, but the moves have pleased investors, who have sparked a rally in the sector in recent days.

New York Times Co posted second-quarter net income of $39 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $21.1 million, or 15 cents a share, in the quarter a year ago.

Excluding an income tax gain and various charges, its profit of 8 cents a share surprised analysts, who expected a loss of 4 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

The Times cut operating costs by 20 percent in the quarter, and said it plans to record $450 million in cost savings this year. Some of that savings is coming from closing its City and Suburban newspaper and magazine distribution unit.

Revenue fell 21 percent to $584.5 million on a 30 percent decline in ad revenue. Ad sales at its news media group, which includes its newspapers, fell 32 percent. Online ad revenue, normally a brighter category for publishers, fell 15.5 percent.

USA Today owner Gannett Co Inc, Miami Herald publisher McClatchy Co and Richmond Times-Dispatch publisher Media General Inc, all surprised Wall Street with higher-than-expected profits due to expense cuts, but said ad revenue continued to fall.

As newspaper ad revenue falls, the Times and many other publishers are exploring ways to charge for Web access, but in a way that will not dent online ad sales or drive away large numbers of readers.

It also is cutting labor costs. Earlier this week, union workers agreed to pay cuts and other concessions at the Globe, which will result in $20 million in annual savings at the money-losing paper. The Times has already cut pay by up to 5 percent at other properties, including its flagship paper.

Earlier this month, the Times said it will sell its classical music radio station in New York to pay debt, and that it hopes to sell its stake in the Red Sox's holding company, New England Sports Ventures, by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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