Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

Don’t ever hand your phone to the cops Even if you’ve got nothing to hide.

Your Data Will Be Used Against You.
www.theverge.com/2024/9/24/24...

Opinion | Doctors, Lawyers and Priests Keep Secrets. Why Not Your Chatbot?

@nilsgilman.bsky.social

Interesting piece about a legal privilege for AI communications. In my forthcoming book, I propose a broader legal privilege for digital communications (not just AI).

Doctors, Lawyers and Priests Keep Secrets. Why Not Your Chatbot? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/o...

Sponsored Content: Body-Worn Cameras Build Transparency and Trust for Law Enforcement Across the Nation Sponsored Content: Body-Worn Cameras Build Transparency and Trust for Law Enforcement Across the Nation

Anyone know if this is true? 75 years seems pretty long for any evidence retention.

“DHS requires evidentiary data to be held for 75 years, potentially evidentiary data for three years and non-evidentiary data for 180 days.”

www.politico.com/sponsored/20...

Great piece from @awinston.bsky.social: "One area where Mamdani is guaranteed to clash with Tisch is on the NYPD’s massive technical surveillance apparatus and intelligence-gathering methods, which have metastasized since 9/11 to levels that rival the capabilities of a midsize country."

Zohran Mamdani Just Inherited the NYPD Surveillance State In addition to affordability, New York City’s mayor-elect will be forced to reckon with the NYPD’s sweeping mass surveillance operations.

www.wired.com/story/welcom...

"As Virgil guided Dante through Hell, so too does Ferguson guide us through the world of digital informants and the inadequate legal regime that enables it. Your Data Will Be Used Against You is essential and a bright flashing warning sign articulating the vulnerability we all live with, the inability of the current legal system to protect us, and the loaded gun this system represents to would-be tyrants whether they wear a badge or make the laws." ~Matthew Guariglia, author of Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York

I must have been in some sort of mood when I sent in this blurb for @profferguson.bsky.social's important new book

Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance

nyupress.org/978147983828...

Thank you for your poetic blurb. And as you wait to buy my book in March you should all read “Police and the Empire City.”

Coolest Halloween trick or treat. Giving a book-loving kid a signed book by an award-winning author. Talk about knocking on the right door.

You can see the document for yourself here: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

We don't paywall articles based on public records like this. And we try to publish as many records as we can, like here. You can support 404 Media by becoming a paid subscriber here: 404media.co/membership/

You Can't Refuse To Be Scanned by ICE's Facial Recognition App, DHS Document Says Photos captured by Mobile Fortify will be stored for 15 years, regardless of immigration or citizenship status, the document says.

New from 404 Media: you can't refuse to be scanned by ICE's new facial recognition app, according to internal DHS document I obtained. Photos captured by the app are stored for 15 years, including U.S. citizens. We've seen officers scanning faces w/ phones on streets

www.404media.co/you-cant-ref...

You Can't Refuse To Be Scanned by ICE's Facial Recognition App, DHS Document Says Photos captured by Mobile Fortify will be stored for 15 years, regardless of immigration or citizenship status, the document says.

NEW: you can't refuse to be scanned by ICE's new facial recognition app, according to internal DHS document 404 Media obtained. Photos taken by the app are stored for 15 years, including of U.S. citizens. We've published the full document here: www.404media.co/you-cant-ref...

Hillsborough, N.C., Cancels Surveillance Camera Contract The town Board of Commissioners approved a two-year pact to install 10 surveillance cameras, but subsequently canceled it. Staff and board members expressed privacy concerns around data sharing.

Rare story of community rejecting surveillance creep.

www.govtech.com/public-safet...

Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”

New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

ICE and CBP Agents Are Scanning Peoples’ Faces on the Street To Verify Citizenship Videos on social media show officers from ICE and CBP using facial recognition technology on people in the field. One expert described the practice as “pure dystopian creep.”

New: Videos show ICE/CBP agents are scanning peoples' faces on the street to verify citizenship. ICE has tool to instantly look up unprecedented number of databases with just a photo

“I’m an American citizen so leave me alone”

“Alright, we just got to verify that”

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

Your Data Will Be Used Against You

Police used Flock cameras to accuse a Denver woman of package theft. She had her own evidence "Like I said, nothing gets in or out of the town without us knowing."

denverite.com/2025/10/27/b...

Smart glasses that protect against surveillance v. Smart glasses that are surveillance. What a world.

Read this thread!

Or maybe they stole and scraped some amazing content and convinced themselves of its value and worth.

How did they quantify “beyond a reasonable doubt”? Someone had to program in a number or two. Would be fascinating to know.

Thank you for your service.

Mary Fan

Jotwell Crim Law latest:
Mary Fan, AI-Generated Police Reports, JOTWELL (March 4, 2025) (reviewing Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, Generative Suspicion and the Risks of AI-Assisted Police Reports (July 17, 2024), available at SSRN), crim.jotwell.com/ai-generated....

If you are protesting #NoKings be cognizant that you are under surveillance.

Your rights to petition, assemble, dissent, and just speak your mind are threatened by the same surveillance systems you have helped enable through buying “smart” tech and funding police tech to watch your communities.

More law enforcement agencies using artificial intelligence - Spartan Newsroom A growing number of law enforcement agencies are using artificial intelligence, a U-M study finds. That includes automated license plate readers, facial recognition technology and other AI tools. The ...

“Also, around 49% of those interviewed say their agencies are apt to adopt facial recognition and 54% say they are likely to adopt predictive policing tools like AI.”

news.jrn.msu.edu/2025/10/more...

Can’t say we weren’t warned. And, all of that tech will be normalized in a few years as it expands beyond immigration enforcement.

Philly councilmembers push for protections from misuse of AI Police use of facial recognition and drones is subject to “rigorous” review, officials say.

This debate over AI in policing is going to happen in every city in America over the next few years. billypenn.com/2025/10/17/p...

Amazon Ring security cameras moving deeper into law enforcement with Flock Safety, Axon deals Amazon Ring security cameras are getting more deeply into police work through deals with Flock Safety and Axon at time of rising debate over crime levels.

Your Data Will Be Used Against You. www.cnbc.com/2025/10/16/a...

@profferguson.bsky.social’s work in this area is so important.

Concerns about AI-written police reports spur states to regulate the emerging practice AI-generated police reports promise to save cops time, but they also raise a host of legal and technical concerns.

Should you know if police used AI to draft your police report? Only Utah and California require such basic transparency. Who is next? theconversation.com/concerns-abo...

“Only by focusing on power can the law best address the problems of privacy and technology.” – from my book ON PRIVACY AND TECHNOLOGY www.amazon.com/gp/product/0...