Daily Surveillance Briefing: March 18, 2026

What You Need to Know:

ICE agents are visiting legal observers at their homes. "They know where you live." The Intercept documents a pattern of federal agents intimidating U.S. citizens who watch ICE operations—showing up at their homes, photographing their houses, following them from raid sites.
TELUS Digital lost a petabyte. ShinyHunters breached the BPO giant and took FBI background checks, financial records, voice recordings, and source code. 1,000 terabytes. They wanted $65 million. TELUS said no.
U.S. Army just renewed Clearview AI. Special Forces Command signed a new contract running through 2030. The company that scraped your face from the internet now has a four-year deal with military special operations.
FISA 702: 32 days. The administration still won't say if it wants the law renewed. Congress still hasn't held public hearings. The warrant requirement still lost by one vote in 2024.
The "One Big Database" is getting AI. The Intercept reports the administration's centralized surveillance database will be fully AI-searchable. Every tax filing, medical claim, and immigration record—processed by machine learning.

"They Know Where You Live": ICE Agents Visiting Legal Observers at Home

Federal agents led former Minnesota state senator Matt Little to his own house [1][2].

Little was doing what legal observers do—watching ICE operations and documenting what happens. Two SUVs followed him. When he got home, two more were waiting in his driveway. Agents accused him of "impeding" their investigation. They said local police would come. Nobody came. No citation was issued.

He's not alone.

The pattern:

Katherine Henly was following suspected ICE vehicles in Minneapolis when agents suddenly stopped on her block. They photographed her home. A masked agent with a large firearm accused her of "impeding enforcement."
Another observer was told by federal officers they had "been to her home" and "knew where she lived."
Over 650 people have been charged under the catch-all "interference" statute this year—double last year's numbers.

The message is clear: if you watch them, they'll watch you. And they'll make sure you know it.

DHS is building a surveillance web that monitors both the people it deports and the U.S. citizens who document its actions. ICE observers report being audited, pulled over, called by name, and followed home. The domestic terrorism unit is running database searches on peaceful protesters [3].

Watching the watchers has become a risk.

ShinyHunters Takes a Petabyte from TELUS Digital

One petabyte. That's 1,000 terabytes [4][5][6].

On March 11, TELUS Digital confirmed ShinyHunters breached their systems. The Canadian BPO giant handles customer service operations for companies you've probably called. Now ShinyHunters has:

FBI background checks on employees—SSNs, birth dates, criminal history
Financial records for BPO customers
Voice recordings of customer service calls
Source code for internal systems
Salesforce data containing customer information

How it happened: ShinyHunters found Google Cloud Platform credentials in data stolen during the Salesloft Drift breach. They used those credentials to access TELUS systems, downloaded everything, and ran trufflehog to find more credentials in the stolen data. Then they pivoted to additional systems.

They demanded $65 million. TELUS refused. Now they're threatening to release everything.

TELUS handles customer service for major consumer brands. If you've called tech support recently, your voice might be in that petabyte. ShinyHunters has been on a tear—they're behind the Bumble, Match Group, and SoundCloud breaches earlier this year. Tens of millions of records across the dating and music industries [7].

The FBI background checks are the most concerning. Those files contain everything needed for identity theft at scale.

U.S. Army Special Forces Just Renewed Clearview AI

The 1st Special Forces Command signed a new Clearview AI contract on March 20. Five licenses, running through 2030 [8].

Clearview built its database by scraping billions of photos from social media, news sites, and anywhere else faces appear online. Without consent. Privacy regulators in the UK, France, Italy, and Australia have fined them. State attorneys general have sued. But the U.S. military keeps signing contracts.

The timeline:

2020: First reports of federal law enforcement using Clearview
2022: UK fines Clearview £7.5 million
2024: Multiple state AGs reach settlements requiring data deletion
2026: Army special operations signs a four-year deal

The company claims over 20 billion face images. That's roughly 2.5 photos of every person on Earth. Most of those people never agreed to have their face in a military-accessible database.

FISA 702: 32 Days Until Sunset

Section 702 expires April 20. Nobody seems to know what happens next [9][10].

Where things stand:

The administration refuses to say publicly whether it wants renewal. FBI and NSA officials sat through a classified Senate hearing and wouldn't commit to a position.
Senator Warner called the silence "a dereliction of duty" with two months left on the clock.
The warrant requirement lost by a single vote (212-212) in the House in 2024. The fight continues.
The SAFE Act would add warrant requirements. The Wyden-Lee bill would close the data broker loophole. Neither has moved.

The two-year extension passed in 2024 was the shortest ever. Congress couldn't agree on reforms, so they punted. Now they're about to run out of runway again.

ICE using 702 data for immigration raids has changed the political dynamics. Some Republicans who supported the program for counterterrorism are less enthusiastic about its use for deportations.

The "One Big Database" Gets AI

The Intercept published new details on the administration's centralized surveillance database [11][12].

We've covered the "one big beautiful database" before. But now we know more about what they're building: a system where every resident's intimate details are fully searchable by artificial intelligence.

What goes in the database:

Tax filings from the IRS
Student debt records from Education
Social Security data (including the files DOGE allegedly copied)
Bank account information
Medical claims
Immigration status

What AI does with it: Creates detailed profiles on every American. Identifies patterns. Surfaces "anomalies." The Center for American Progress calls it a "digital watchtower."

Officials could use these records to retaliate against political opponents, discredit critics, or intimidate voters. By "eliminating information silos," they've created a single point of failure for the privacy of 330 million people.

Freedom of the Press Foundation is suing for documents. The administration isn't talking.

DOGE Whistleblower: SSA Inspector General Investigation Continues

The Social Security Administration's inspector general notified Congress on March 6 that it's investigating whistleblower claims about DOGE [13][14].

The allegations: A former DOGE software engineer told coworkers at his new job that he "possessed two tightly restricted databases of U.S. citizens' information"—the Numident and Master Death File. Combined, they contain records for over 500 million living and dead Americans: Social Security numbers, dates and places of birth, citizenship status, race, ethnicity, and parents' names.

He allegedly copied this data to a thumb drive and planned to use it at his new company.

Rep. Robert Garcia expanded the House Oversight investigation following the whistleblower allegations. The SSA IG is reviewing "the potential misuse of SSA data by a former DOGE employee, among other allegations."

"God-level access" to America's most sensitive database. On a thumb drive. Walking out the door.

Quick Hits

Maine's privacy bill passed the Senate. LD 1822 heads back to the House for concurrence. If enacted, it would be one of the strongest state privacy laws in the country [15].
Hawaii bans selling location data. SB 1163 passed the Senate March 10. It prohibits selling geolocation data, browser history, and data collected through apps "operating in the background."
Iran using Russian facial recognition. A joint investigation revealed Iran's authorities have access to NtechLab's FindFace system to track and crush dissent [16].
Aura.com breach data released. ShinyHunters failed to extort the security company, so they dumped 921,000 email records on March 14 [17].
Eyematch.ai launches. A new facial recognition search platform lets users find where their face appears online. The company says it's for "protecting your identity." Privacy advocates are skeptical [18].

Looking Ahead

On the calendar:

March 19: EFF "Privacy's Defender" livestream with Cindy Cohn
March 21: Sunshine Week ends
March 23-26: RSA Conference 2026 (Orlando)
March 26: DOGE-SSA deadline for Commissioner Bisignano's response to Congress
March 31: Conduent breach credit monitoring deadline
April 20: FISA Section 702 sunset. 32 days.

References

Last updated: March 18, 2026