ICE knocks on ad tech’s data door to see what it knows about you
Summary
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a Request for Information (RFI) on 23 January 2026 asking ad tech firms and data brokers about the kinds of personal data they can supply to federal investigators. The RFI is market research rather than a procurement, and seeks to map available data types — location, financial, health, and more — that could support ICE investigations.
The move follows an earlier October 2025 RFI for open-source intelligence and social-media information for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations. The latest inquiry arrives amid heightened scrutiny of ICE tactics and several recent shootings involving immigration agents.
Privacy and civil-liberties groups warn the agency is trying to reframe surveillance as a commercial purchase to sidestep constitutional protections. Experts point to location data vendors (for example, Venntel) and investigative-data providers (such as TLOxp) as likely sources, and stress that commercially collected ad-tech data can reveal intimate details about people’s lives.
Key Points
- ICE issued an RFI on 23 January 2026 seeking information from ad tech and data-broker firms about available personal, location, financial and health data.
- The request is market research, not a formal solicitation for bids, aimed at understanding how ad tech data might support investigations.
- The RFI follows an October 2025 notice seeking open-source intelligence and social media data to improve targeting by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.
- Privacy advocates say buying commercial data is an attempt to bypass Fourth Amendment protections and that ad-tech consent regimes are weak and opaque.
- Experts expect a focus on location data vendors but note responses could come from smaller resellers and consultancies as well as traditional data providers.
- Mitigations suggested include legislative fixes (e.g. Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act) and technical measures such as disabling ad identifiers and withholding unnecessary location permissions.
Context and relevance
This RFI sits at the intersection of surveillance, commercial data flows and civil liberties. Governments increasingly rely on datasets assembled by advertising and analytics ecosystems to locate and profile people — a practice that raises constitutional and privacy questions because it can provide warrant-free access to highly sensitive information.
For organisations and technologists, the story highlights ongoing tension between advertising-driven data economies and emerging calls for stricter regulation or technical changes from platform owners, browser vendors and OS makers. For the public, it underscores how everyday data — location pings, tracking identifiers, app permissions — can be repurposed for enforcement actions.
Author style
Punchy — the reporting flags immediate civil-liberty consequences and points readers to practical steps and legislative efforts that matter. Read the detail if you care about privacy, oversight and how commercial data pipelines feed government surveillance.
Why should I read this?
Because ICE is effectively shopping for surveillance. If you use a smartphone, a modern car, or any app that tracks location or behaviour, this affects you. The piece saves you time by cutting to what ICE is asking for, who’s warning about it, and what you (or lawmakers) might do about it. Short version: the data ad tech gathers isn’t just for ads any more.