Feature Article: The Question of Who You Are
S&T is helping to facilitate the creation of secure, self-generated digital IDs to give people more control over their personal information.
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S&T is helping to facilitate the creation of secure, self-generated digital IDs to give people more control over their personal information.
DHS S&T announced that Credence ID, Hushmesh, Netis d.o.o., Procivis, SpruceID, and Ubiqu have each won a government contract to develop technologies that protect the privacy of individuals using digital versions of credentials issued for immigration and travel.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) is responsible for conducting and supervising independent and objective audits, inspections, evaluations, and investigations to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse and promote economy, effectiveness, and efficiency within DHS programs and activities.
This Privacy Impact Assessment evaluates the privacy risks and mitigations associated with this system including the use and maintenance of personally identifiable information (PII) collected by DHS Components and shared with S&T for research, development, testing, and evaluation in the Cloud-based Biometric Analytic Environment.
This Privacy Impact Assessment focuses on the collection and use of publicly available information including social media information for law enforcement investigations, leaving in-depth analysis of maintenance and sharing to the respective Privacy Impact Assessments for ICE systems in which the data is ultimately stored.
In general, nonimmigrant visitors to the U.S. territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are required to obtain a visa from the U.S. Department of State before being admitted. CBP created the Guam-Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (G-CNMI) Visa Waiver Program (VWP) which allows certain nonimmigrant visitors to seek admission to Guam and/or the CNMI without a visa for a period of authorized stay not to exceed 45 days. Nonimmigrants use the Form I-736, Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Information, to determine eligibility to travel under the G-CNMI Visa Waiver Program. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is publishing this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) to provide notice and assess the privacy risks associated with the G-CNMI Visa Waiver Program, including the newly created restricted sub-program CNMI Economic Vitality & Security Travel Authorization Program (EVS-TAP), and the newly established electronic Form I-736, which is used to grant travel authorization to nonimmigrants prior to their embarkation to Guam or the CNMI. January 2024
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of the Chief Information Officer, (OCIO), in coordination with the Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), is launching the ICE Noncitizen Portal, a public-facing agency website that provides noncitizens and other immigration partners with access to digital services and search tools to interact with ICE. The purpose of the ICE Noncitizen Portal is to offer individuals with information about immigration proceedings, and provide other digital services designed to streamline the process. ICE is implementing the ICE Noncitizen Portal features in a phased approach. This initial Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) and the attached appendices discuss and evaluate the privacy risks and mitigations associated with collection, use, and maintenance of personally identifiable information (PII) accessed and displayed via the ICE Noncitizen Portal and its digital services. ICE will update the Privacy Impact Assessment appendices when new digital services become accessible through the ICE Noncitizen Portal. November 2023
In accordance with the Secretary of Homeland Security’s recent announcement on the Department’s use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer, in coordination with the Science and Technology Directorate, Privacy Office, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and Office of the General Counsel, is leading the Department’s efforts to ensure responsible use of AI while fulfilling the Department’s mission and supporting its workforce. As part of this effort, the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer is working to advance specific mission applications of AI across the Department, and address ways in which the workforce may use conditionally approved commercially available generative AI (Gen AI) tools (i.e., tools not procured for use for specific Department missions) for certain aspects of their work. “Gen AI” is the class of AI models that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate novel synthetic content (i.e., outputs). This can include images, videos, audio, text, code, and other types of digital content. This Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) analyzes the Department’s use of conditionally approved Gen AI tools.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas launched the Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS), which will advance the Department’s statistical reporting and analysis capabilities.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) developed the USCIS ArcGIS1 Enterprise System (AES), a Geographic Information System (GIS), which creates maps and geographic data to enable mapping as a common visual language promoting analysis and decision-making. The USCIS ArcGIS Enterprise System allows USCIS to efficiently analyze geographic data about where USCIS-related operations occur and their connections through high-level statistical aggregated reports. The ArcGIS Enterprise System is also used to geospatially display USCIS information via web-based maps to assist with decision-making across the agency and better serve its stakeholders. It will be used in operations to include evaluating office workloads, resource allocation, determining trends of potential fraud, locating current and potential USCIS assets, and identifying employees and facilities that may be at risk from natural disasters. This Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) documents the potential privacy implications associated with the collection, use, and maintenance of personally identifiable information (PII) by the ArcGIS Enterprise System. October 2023