May 28, 2020
DHS/FEMA/PIA-055 FEMA Response Use of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Derived Imagery
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Office of Response and Recovery (ORR), Response Directorate (RD) uses imagery from Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to assist FEMA in fulfilling disaster response requirements with less cost, less environmental impact, and enhanced safety when compared to other conventional methods. FEMA RD does not own or operate UAS; instead FEMA RD uses mission assignment of other federal agencies (e.g., Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection) to obtain UAS-derived imagery. UAS-derived imagery enhances the common operational picture and supports FEMA situational awareness and decision-making. FEMA RD will not use the data provided by UAS operations to identify individuals, monitor an individual or group’s movement, or intentionally gather personally identifiable information (PII); any PII collected is incidental and will be obfuscated or deleted prior to use or storage. DHS/FEMA is conducting this PIA to evaluate the privacy impact of the use of UAS-derived imagery.
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May 28, 2020
DHS/ICE/PIA-056 War Crimes Hunter
War Crimes Hunter (WCH) is a program, run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit (HRVWCU), that collects and shares information about alleged human rights violators. HRVWCU is dedicated to identifying, locating, investigating, prosecuting, and removing human rights violators from the United States, as well as preventing their initial entry into the country. WCH collects digital media depicting individuals engaged in war crimes and human rights violations, isolates the facial images of the suspected perpetrators, and shares those images with the biometric databases of relevant Federal partners. These partners search their databases for potential matches based on facial recognition alone and return lists of candidates that HRVWCU can use to produce investigative leads. ICE is conducting this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) because WCH collects and disseminates personally identifiable information (PII) of individuals who are located overseas and engaging in human rights violations.
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May 27, 2020
Social Media Analytics and Reporting Toolkit (SMART)
May 23, 2020
National Interest Exemption From Presidential Proclamations 9984, 9992, 9993, and 9996 Regarding Novel Coronavirus for Certain Professional Athletes and Their Essential Staff and Dependents
To address the threat to the nation posed by the novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), the President issued Proclamations 9984, 9992, 9993, and 9996, suspending the entry of all aliens who were physically present within the People’s Republic of China (excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau), the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States. Each of the above proclamations includes an exception for “any alien whose entry would be in the national interest, as determined by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or their designees.”
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May 22, 2020
DHS/USSS/PIA-028 United States Secret Service Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program (UAS)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is responsible for identifying threats, mitigating vulnerabilities, and creating secure environments for statutorily protected peoples, places, and events. The USSS Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information’s (SII) Counter-Surveillance Division (CSD) performs observation and counter-surveillance for indicators of operations that include planning, directing, and executing observation Counter-surveillance operations are also used to detect suspicious activity or pre-incident behaviors in support of the USSS protective mission. SII is in the process of requesting funding to establish an Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program in Fiscal Year 2022. In the interim, SII is working to secure immediate funding to evaluate readily available small UAS (sUAS). The sUAS covered by this privacy impact assessment (PIA) will be tethered and will only use optical sensors. The sUAS proof of concept pilot testing will be conducted at various test sites around the U.S. with the goal of enhancing the current CSD aerial platforms. The USSS is conducting this PIA to evaluate the privacy risks associated with sUAS observation and image capturing capabilities. This PIA is limited to the use of sUAS during protective missions. Any use of other types of sensors by USSS on USSS aircraft—including sUAS—will be addressed in a future PIA.
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May 19, 2020
Notification of Temporary Travel Restrictions Applicable to Land Ports of Entry and Ferries Service Between the United States, Canada, and Mexico
These documents announce the decision of the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary) to continue to temporarily limit the travel of individuals from Canada and Mexico into the United States at land ports of entry along the United States-Canada and United States-Mexico border. Such travel will be limited to “essential travel,” as further defined in these documents.
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May 18, 2020
Reference Guide for Operating in Environments where SARS-CoV-2 may be Present
The Reference Guide provides links to several U.S. Government references that address a broad range of questions regarding decontamination and other operations within environments where SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may be present.
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May 14, 2020
DHS/ICE/PIA-055 Repository for Analytics in a Virtualized Environment (RAVEn)
The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Innovation Lab is developing an analytical platform called the Repository for Analytics in a Virtualized Environment (RAVEn). RAVEn will facilitate large, complex analytical projects to support ICE’s mission to enforce and investigate violations of U.S. criminal, civil, and administrative laws. RAVEn also enables users to develop new tools to analyze trends and isolate criminal patterns as HSI mission needs arise. ICE is publishing this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) and its associated appendices because the analytical tools that reside on RAVEn access and store personally identifiable information (PII) retrieved from data systems owned by DHS, other governmental agencies, and commercial databases. ICE will regularly update the appendices to this PIA to reflect any new system connection or tool developed on the RAVEn platform.
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May 14, 2020
DHS/ICE/PIA-054 ICE Use of Facial Recognition Services
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is focused on countering domestic and transnational crimes. In the course of its investigations, HSI routinely encounters digital images of potential victims or individuals suspected of crimes but cannot connect those images to identifiable information through existing investigative means and methods. HSI, therefore, submits those images to government agencies and commercial vendors to compare against their digital image galleries via facial recognition processes. The agencies and vendors query their databases for potential matches and return lists of potential candidate matches that HSI can use to produce investigative leads. HSI is conducting this Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) because the use of these facial recognition services (FRS) requires the collection, maintenance, and use of personally identifiable information (PII).
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May 13, 2020
2018 Fusion Center Assessment
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducts the annual Fusion Center Assessment to provide a comprehensive picture of the performance of the National Network of Fusion Centers (National Network), measure the effectiveness of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant funding, and guide partners to invest in mission areas with the greatest potential benefit to the entire homeland. The Assessment primarily evaluates fusion centers' adherence to selected performance measures.
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Official website of the Department of Homeland Security
