U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have spent $1.2 million on technology that is used to hack iPhones.
ICE signed a $384,000 contract with the tech company Grayshift in September and another $820,000 contract this month. The money will go toward the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations unit. Along with immigration crimes, the unit focuses on a variety of offenses, including money laundering, drug trafficking, and child exploitation.
The contracted tech is the top of the line and one of the best ways for police and military to hack into iPhones by bypassing the user’s passcode.
An ICE spokesperson confirmed the contract to Forbes but said that “ICE does not generally discuss law-enforcement tactics, surveillance techniques, or investigative tools used during the course of criminal enforcement.”
The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the contract. ACLU staff attorney Nathan Wessler said that there are privacy concerns with the technology.
“When an agency that insists on its power to search people’s cell phones without a warrant spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on technology to bypass the security features on phones, there is cause for concern,” he said.
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