DHS surveillance tools lack bias and privacy protections, GAO says

Department of Homeland Security law enforcement agencies do not have adequate policies in place to address bias or privacy concerns posed by detection and monitoring technologies, even as they reported using more than 20 different types of surveillance tools in 2023, according to a Government Accountability Office report published on Tuesday. 

The GAO review examined how Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Secret Service used these observation capabilities — including drones, automated license plate readers and gunshot detection tools — in public, as well as the safeguards in place to protect Americans’ civil liberties. 

The watchdog found that, while DHS is in the process of developing policies and assessment capabilities to reduce bias in the use of AI-enabled monitoring technologies, “it has no plans to develop such policies or procedures for other detection, observation and monitoring technologies as it is not required to.”

GAO said the three agencies should enhance engagement with DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties — or CRCL — to address bias-related issues. Agencies are currently not required to engage with the office when it comes to bias issues related to technology use, although they are required to conduct privacy reviews before deploying certain capabilities. 

The report said, however, that the CRCL is unaware of many of the technologies being used by DHS agencies and is facing workforce challenges. 

“Policies and procedures to assess and address bias risks could better position CRCL to use its limited resources effectively and determine the appropriate level of guidance and oversight based on risk,” GAO said.

The report further noted that the assessed law enforcement agencies have conducted privacy impact assessments for the reviewed monitoring and detection technologies, but that their technology policies “did not always capture” how they planned to have end users of the tools follow the department’s Fair Information Practice Principles.

GAO said the failure to follow the guidance “could result in the unintended use and sharing of protected information” and recommended that the agencies adhere to the framework’s privacy protections. 

“By requiring that technology policies for each detection, observation and monitoring technology address the key privacy protections from the Fair Information Practice Principles, DHS agencies could have better assurance that employees are implementing these protections when using these technologies,” GAO added. 

The watchdog made five recommendations to DHS, including calling for the department to develop policies that address the risks of bias and ensure that its law enforcement agencies are fully implementing privacy protections in their implementation policies,

DHS concurred with GAO’s recommendations, although ICE and the Secret Service said “their current policies and processes address the recommendation.” The watchdog disagreed.