ICE Asks Companies About ‘Ad Tech and Big Data’ Tools It Could Use in Investigations

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Requests Companies to Provide Information About “Commercial Big Data and Ad Tech” products that would “directly support investigative activities,” according to a request for information posted Friday in the Federal Register, the U.S. government's official journal of agency notices, regulations and other public filings.

The post says so IIS “works with increasing volumes of criminal, civil and regulatory, administrative documentation from various internal and external sources.” The agency frames the request as a way to examine what tools are currently available to help manage and analyze the information ICE has, and says it is looking at “existing and emerging” products that are “comparable to major providers of investigative data and legal/risk analytics.”

In addition, the entry says “the government is seeking to understand the current state of Ad Tech-compliant and location data services available to federal investigative and operational entities, given regulatory limitations and privacy expectations of support investigative activities.” The filing doesn't offer much detail beyond that broad description: It doesn't spell out what regulations or privacy standards would apply, nor does it name specific “Big Data and Ad Tech” services or vendors ICE is interested in.

The entry appears to be the first time the term “ad tech” has appeared in a request for information, request for contract, or contract justification posted by ICE in the Federal Registry, according to searches by WIRED. The request underscores how tools originally developed for digital advertising and other commercial purposes are becoming increasingly common is considered for government use for law enforcement and surveillance.

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment from WIRED.

ICE previously used the term “big data” in a contract directing Palantir to provide “unlimited operations and maintenance support of the FALCON system” and unlimited licenses for “Palantir Gotham.” Gotham is Palantir's off-the-shelf investigative tool for law enforcement. The company provides a customized version of Gotham to ICE known as the “Investigative Case Management” system. FALCON is a tool within the customized Palantir system that ICE used to “store, search, analyze and visualize volumes of existing information” on current and past investigations.

ICE has also previously purchased products that provide mobile location data, which is sometimes included among the information provided by companies that buy and sell information collected for online advertising. Ad tech data can include details about the device and apps a person uses, where they are located, and their browsing activity, among other things.

ICE has bought commercial location data obtained from Webloc, a tool sold by the company Penlink. Webloc allows a user to collect information about the mobile phones used within a specific area during a specific time period. Users have the ability to filter the displayed devices according to criteria, such as whether their location was collected via “GPS, WiFi, or IP address,” or by their “Apple and Android advertising identifiers,” according to reporting by 404 Media,

In several recent years, ICE has also bought licenses to use Venntel, a data broker and subsidiary of the firm Gravy Analytics that collects and sells consumer location data. In a Federal Registry entry that concluded a contract with Venntel last year, ICE reported that its enforcement and removal operations division had used the company's software “to access/obtain information to accurately identify digital devices.”

The Federal Trade Commission claimed in 2024 that Venntel sold consumers' sensitive location data without obtaining proper consent from people for commercial and government purposes. The FTC later prohibited Gravy Analytics and Venntel “from selling, disclosing or using sensitive location data, except in limited circumstances involving national security or law enforcement.” (Gravy Analytics neither admitted nor denied any of the FTC's allegations.)