CBP Signs Clearview AI Deal to Use Face Recognition for 'Tactical Targeting'

US Border Patrol intelligence units will gain access to a face recognition tool built on billions of images scraped from the internet. United States Customs and Border Protection plans to spend $225,000 for a year of access to Clearview AI, a face recognition tool that compares photos against billions of images scraped from the internet . The deal extends access to Clearview tools to Border Patrol's headquarters intelligence division (INTEL) and the National Targeting Center, units that collect and analyze data as part of what CBP calls a coordinated effort to "disrupt, degrade, and dismantle" people and networks viewed as security threats. The contract states that Clearview provides access to "over 60+ billion publicly available images" and will be used for "tactical targeting" and "strategic counter-network analysis," indicating the service is intended to be embedded in analysts' day-to-day intelligence work rather than reserved for isolated investigations. CBP says its intelligence units draw from a "variety of sources," including commercially available tools and publicly available data, to identify people and map their connections for national security and immigration operations.