{"id":79589,"date":"2026-03-04T19:11:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=79589"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:11:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:11:21","slug":"the-era-of-total-control-technology-finds-us-wherever-we-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=79589","title":{"rendered":"The Era of Total Control: Technology Finds Us Wherever We Are"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Julieth Gualtero Baquero<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“There’s nowhere left to hide!” was the title of a recent press conference in San Francisco, where a panel of experts in technology, law and immigration policy warned about the transformation of law enforcement agencies into technological powerhouses operating with little democratic oversight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Left to right: Juan Sebasti\u00e1n Pinto, Jacob Ward, moderator and American Community Media Executive Director Jaya Padmanabhan and Juan Sebasti\u00e1n Pinto at a February, 27 ACoM and San Francisco Local Media Coalition panel at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. (Photo by Selen Ozturk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThere\u2019s nowhere left to hide!\u201d was the title of a recent press conference in San Francisco, where a panel of experts in technology, law and immigration policy warned about the transformation of law enforcement agencies into technological powerhouses operating with little democratic oversight.<\/p>\n

The conference at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, organized by American Community Media in collaboration with the San Francisco Local Media Coalition, focused on how tools originally designed for warfare and counterterrorism are now being used for mass deportation and the everyday surveillance of citizens.<\/p>\n

Invisible Online Raids<\/h2>\n
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Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, senior analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, describes the breaking down of \u201cdata silos\u201d between federal agencies. (Photo by Selen Ozturk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Ariel Ruiz Soto, senior analyst at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), was the first panelist to address how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become the best-funded law enforcement agency in the country, after receiving a budget of $10 billion, plus an additional $75 million in 2025. One of the most alarming points raised by Ruiz is the breaking down of \u201cdata silos.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what does this mean? The term refers to information storage systems that are isolated from one another \u2014 that is, data that was previously private, such as health records, IRS tax records and driver\u2019s licenses \u2014 now flows into a centralized database called \u201cImmigration OS,\u201d developed by Palantir.<\/p>\n

This system uses artificial intelligence to conduct life-pattern analysis, predicting habits that facilitate real-time detentions. The government has moved from traditional raid techniques to what he calls \u201cinvisible online raids.\u201d This makes clear that the pursuit no longer begins on the street, but on servers, through which the government can locate and profile individuals without needing immigration agents in the field.<\/p>\n

Science Fiction Technology on the Streets<\/h2>\n

Researcher Jacob Ward, reporter-in-residence at The Omidyar Network, described inappropriate uses of surveillance technology that have bypassed traditional systems used by law enforcement: After a protestor had a run-in with the New York Police Department at a No Kings rally, the police arrested him days later at his apartment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe footage we had showed the Clearview AI printout that had his face and where he lived, and it literally says at the top, \u2018Not to be used for suspect identification,\u2019\u201d said Ward, adding that this was exactly what the police department did \u2014 and that with these AI tools, they\u2019re \u201cinventing legal strategies to provide the evidence required in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet surveillance also builds on widely used consumer technologies, he continued, warning that as a society we have accepted surveillance devices in our homes under a false premise of convenience.<\/p>\n

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Jacob Ward, reporter-in-residence at The Omidyar Network, explains that the household use of surveillance devices has a false premise of convenience. (Photo by Selen Ozturk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned that I can\u2019t speak on radio or television and say the name of a listening device that Amazon sells, because you\u2019re turning on my Alexa. Suddenly we\u2019ve created this panopticon repository,\u201d Ward said.<\/p>\n

Ward also alerted the audience to technologies that seem pulled from science fiction films but are part of reality: \u201cThere are already systems \u2014 one deployed by special forces \u2014 that can identify your heartbeat from 200 yards away using a laser.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Ward, this method is 98% accurate and impossible to evade: \u201cYou can\u2019t leave your heart at home. You can\u2019t cover it up or run around. There is literally nothing you can do to avoid being identified that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporting<\/a>\u00a0on this technology in 2019, MIT Technology Review explained that every person\u2019s heart produces a unique cardiac signature \u2014 much like an iris or fingerprint \u2014 that can be used for identification purposes, and notably, from a distance. The technology behind this capability was originally developed for the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

Ward also noted that Wi-Fi technology uses home routers to \u201ctriangulate your position and essentially create a video feed of where you are in your house, from a van parked outside,\u201d without the need for physical cameras.<\/p>\n

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Writer and former Palantir employee Juan Sebasti\u00e1n Pinto describes how military-designed tools are now being deployed for domestic law enforcement. (Photo by Selen Ozturk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

These new systems also make it possible to use Wi-Fi signals and high-sensitivity cameras to \u201cread lips through a mask \u2014 you can\u2019t even cover your own mouth to hide what you\u2019re saying,\u201d Ward added.<\/p>\n

Writer Juan Sebasti\u00e1n Pinto, a former Palantir employee, pointed out that tools designed for battlefields are now\u00a0being deployed for\u00a0domestic law enforcement purposes.<\/p>\n

These platforms are not simple data aggregators, but rather stem from \u201ctracking technologies used in the military\u201d and experience in \u201ccounterinsurgency,\u201d said Pinto.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way Palantir builds social graphs and tracking mechanisms shows they were developed with intelligence agencies,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

When asked about the use of the technology in Gaza and Israel, he stated: \u201cPalantir was not only involved in policy in Gaza, but is now involved in the policy of who enters Gaza. I think that really underscores the problem with these technologies. They are involved in a kind of biopolitics in deciding who deserves to live, and in a necropolitics in deciding who deserves to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

In closing, Ward mentioned that young people see the situation more clearly than other demographic groups. There are advisory groups being put together to pull in young people\u2019s perspectives on AI and technology. Whether that will solve any of the problems today remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByJulieth Gualtero Baquero Mar 4, 2026...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79590,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79589\/revisions\/79590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}