Database of millions of records tapped
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have tapped a private database containing hundreds of millions of phone, water, electricity and other utility records while pursuing immigration violations, according to public documents uncovered by Georgetown Law researchers.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of the private database is another example of how government agencies have exploited commercial sources to access information they are not authorized to compile on their own. It also highlights how real-world surveillance efforts are being fueled by information people may never have expected would land in the hands of law enforcement.
The database, CLEAR, includes more than 400 million names, addresses and service records from more than 80 utility companies covering all the staples of modern life, including water, gas, electricity, phone, Internet and cable TV.
CLEAR documents say the database includes billions of records related to people’s employment, housing, credit reports, criminal histories and vehicle registrations from utility companies in all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is updated daily, meaning even a recent move or new utility sign-up could be reflected in an individual search.
The database is run by the media and data conglomerate Thomson Reuters, which sells “legal investigation software solution” subscriptions to a broad range of companies and public agencies. The company has said in documents that its utility data comes from the credit-reporting giant Equifax. Thomson Reuters, based in Toronto, also owns the international news service Reuters as well as other prominent subscription databases, including Westlaw.
Thomson Reuters has not provided a full client list for CLEAR, but the company has said in marketing documents that the system has been used by police in Detroit, a credit union in California and a fraud investigator in the Midwest. Federal purchasing records show that the departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Defense are among the federal agencies with ongoing contracts for CLEAR data use.
On Friday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent letters to the chief executives of Thomson Reuters and Equifax seeking documents and other information on how Immigration and Customs Enforcement has used the utility data in recent years.
“We are concerned that Thomson Reuters’ commercialization of personal and use data of utility customers and sale of broad access to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is an abuse of privacy, and that [the agency’s] use of this database is an abuse of power,” said the letters, which were signed by Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., the committee’s vice chair, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the
CLEAR documents say the database includes billions of records related to people’s employment, housing, credit reports, criminal histories and vehicle registrations from utility companies in all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
chairman of a subcommittee on economic and consumer policy.
Thomson Reuters directed requests for comment to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which declined to comment on its “investigative techniques, tactics or tools,” citing “law-enforcement sensitivities.” Equifax did not respond to requests for comment.
The immigration agency has not shared how often it has used utility records to track people, saying such details should be confidential because they outline protected investigative techniques.
But an immigration-case investigator appeared to note the access in June in an email to officials at the Georgia Department of Driver Services. The email was revealed as part of a Freedom of Information Act request by Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology. In the heavily redacted email, the officer said immigration authorities are pursuing a “straight-up Pleasure Visitor” accused of overstaying a visa and that a search of unspecified utility records had showed that the target had “recently departed” from an address.
In a separate letter to a Texas sheriff’s office in 2019, also obtained by Georgetown researchers, a Thomson Reuters specialist said CLEAR’s utility data offered investigators a powerful way to find “people who are not easily traceable via traditional sources.”
Nina Wang, a policy associate at the Georgetown center, said the database offered immigration officers a way to pursue migrants who may have tried to stay off the grid by avoiding activities such as getting driver’s licenses but could not live without paying to keep the lights on at home.
“There needs to be a line drawn in defense of people’s basic dignity. And when the fear of deportation could endanger their ability to access these basic services, that line is being crossed,” she said. “It’s a massive betrayal of people’s trust… . When you sign up for electricity, you don’t expect them to send immigration agents to your front door.”