Exclusive: ICE Masks Up in More Ways Than One
Homeland security is increasing the use of undercover techniques to infiltrate and interact with social media users in order to collect intelligence and target individuals, documents leaked to me reveal.
The new program, called “masked engagement,” allows homeland security officers to assume false identities and interact with users—friending them, joining closed groups, and gaining access to otherwise private postings, photographs, friend lists and more.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official tells me that over 6,500 field agents and intelligence operatives can use the new tool, a significant increase explicitly linked to more intense monitoring of American citizens.
For years, homeland security has been conducting what it calls “Open Source Intelligence” (OSINT) collection, using social media to enhance general "operational awareness” and for investigating targets in a criminal, civil, or administrative context. Each DHS component defines the level of use, which were previously limited to the following practices (defined below):
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-ice-masks-up-in-more-ways
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