Privacy & Security
Privacy Fears Mount as ICE DNA Database Expands to Nearly a Million, While AI Backlash Accelerates
Federal immigration agents collected DNA from almost one million people this year—including thousands of young children—feeding indefinite FBI records, even as tech platforms begin acknowledging public hostility toward AI-generated content.
WIRED — AI
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dramatically ramped up DNA collection from people in custody, harvesting genetic material from nearly a million individuals in the past year alone and adding hundreds of thousands to an FBI criminal database indefinitely—many of whom have never been convicted of a crime.
DNA Collection Without Consent or Justification#
The scale of the operation extends far beyond adults. Researchers working with WIRED uncovered that ICE has sent DNA samples from 492 children under age 14 to federal databases, including genetic profiles from 21 five-year-olds, 32 six-year-olds, and 33 seven-year-olds. While official policy permits DNA collection from those 14 and older, the younger children's profiles will remain in the FBI's database for life, ostensibly to aid in solving future crimes.
Internal ICE training materials obtained by investigators show that asylum seekers and refugees are treated as routine collection targets, regardless of whether they've faced criminal allegations. Refusing to provide DNA samples has itself become grounds for prosecution—two cases filed in 2025 targeted immigration detainees who declined the procedure.
Lawmakers have begun voicing alarm. Congressional representatives issued a joint statement following revelations about swabbing at a family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, noting that children and families held there had committed no crimes and did not belong in databases designed for violent offenders.
Growing Public Resistance to AI-Generated Content#
Elsewhere in the technology landscape, a starkly different friction is emerging: the public's deepening rejection of artificial intelligence features being inserted into familiar platforms. Google disabled a new Google Earth feature within 24 hours after users immediately weaponized it to fabricate fake satellite imagery—including fictional nuclear facilities in Iran, destroyed hospitals in Gaza, and burning oil terminals.
The backlash reflects a widening gap between how tech companies view AI and how most users experience it. Executives and researchers see powerful tools with genuine utility; ordinary users encounter AI content they never requested in spaces they once enjoyed, with no clear value. LinkedIn now offers users a button to flag posts as "AI slop," while Substack partnered with detection software Pangram to let readers identify likely AI-authored pieces. , a significant shift toward transparency.
