# Florida Man Enters the Encryption Wars
Just three months into the Trump administration's promised crackdown on immigration to the United States, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has landed a $30 million contract with Palantir to build a "near-real time" surveillance platform called ImmigrationOS that would track information about people self-deporting (electing to leave the US). This move is part of a broader effort by ICE to strengthen its digital presence and crack down on undocumented immigrants.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has been sending aggressive emails to individuals with temporary legal status, telling them to leave the US. It's unclear who has actually received these messages, as some US-born citizens have reported receiving them as well. The emails are part of a larger effort by DHS to crack down on unauthorized immigration.
However, not everyone is pleased with the latest developments in the encryption wars. A draft bill in Florida would require social media companies to provide law enforcement with encryption backdoors so cops could access users' accounts. The bill, sponsored by state senator Blaise Ingoglia, advanced unanimously from committee this week and will now go to the state Senate for a vote.
Experts have long warned that encryption backdoors make everyone less secure, including those they are intended to help. Yet waves of attacks on encryption have repeatedly emerged over the years, including a recent trend in the European Union and United Kingdom.
In other news, a Nevada district judge said this week that the practice of "tower dumps," in which law enforcement pulls vast quantities of personal caller data from cell towers, violates the Fourth Amendment and is, thus, unconstitutional. Cell towers collect large quantities of information about users, including phone numbers and phone locations, so when cops request data from a tower during a specific time period, they often receive information on thousands of devices or more.
Despite this decision, law enforcement could still use the evidence they had collected through a tower dump in their case. China has also been making headlines this week, claiming that the US National Security Agency perpetrated "advanced" cyberattacks against critical industries in February during the Asian Winter Games. Law enforcement from the northeastern city of Harbin put three alleged NSA agents on a wanted list and claimed that the University of California and Virginia Tech were involved in the attacks.
The move comes amid escalating tensions between the US and China, including the Trump administration's trade war. In related news, US Customs and Border Protection is using multiple artificial intelligence tools to scan social media and identify people of interest online. The agency has released information about the platforms it's using, which include Dataminr and Onyx.
These AI tools use machine learning algorithms to parse large troves of data and can be used to develop leads on people who may be in violation of US immigration laws. While the exact details of these tools are still unclear, they have raised concerns among privacy advocates about the potential for mass surveillance.
As always, we're tracking the latest security and privacy news that you might have missed. From AI-powered social media bots to cybersecurity threats from around the world, there's no shortage of action happening in this space. Stay safe out there!
## Click the headlines to read the full stories:
* [Draft Legislation in Florida Demands Encryption Backdoors](link) * [Judge Finds Broad Searches of Cell Tower Data Are Unconstitutional](link) * [China Hits US With Accusations of Cyberattacks, Naming Alleged NSA Agents](link) * [US Customs and Border Protection Is Using AI Tools to Monitor Social Media](link)
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