Mapping Interfacial Regimes of Control: A Qualitative Analysis of America’s Post-9/11 Security Technology Infrastructure

Abstract

Recent technological advancements in surveillance and data analysis software have drastically transformed how the United States manages its immigration and national security systems. In particular, an increased emphasis on information sharing and predictive threat modeling following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has prompted agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security to acquire powerful data analysis software from private sector vendors, including those in Silicon Valley. However, the impacts of these private sector technologies, especially in the context of privacy rights and civil liberties, are not yet fully understood. This article interrogates those potential impacts, particularly on the lives of immigrants, by analyzing the relational database system Investigative Case Management (ICM), which is used extensively by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track, manage, and enforce federal immigration policy. As a theoretical framework, the we use Benjamin Bratton’s concept of the “interfacial regime,” or the layered assemblages of interfaces that exist in modern networked ICT infrastructures. By conducting a document analysis, we attempt to visually situate ICM within the federal government’s larger interfacial regime that is composed by various intertwined databases both within and outside the government’s realm of management. Furthermore, we question and critique the role ICM plays in surveilling and governing the lives of immigrants and citizens alike.

The Seer and the Seen: Surveying Palantir’s Surveillance Platform

“…Other media scholars have analyzed Palantir's IT through critical and rhetorical methods. Knight and Gekker (2020), echoing Brayne (2020), note that "the company's software products have received limited academic critique from a sociological or humanities perspective" (236)-we would add that this is even true with regard to quantitative studies. Knight and Gekker (2020) textually analyze a government policy document about the relational database system employed by ICE to track federal immigration, while Munn (2017Munn ( , 2019 critically and philosophically examines video documentation of public Palantir presentations about the Gotham interface on the company's official YouTube account (these videos are currently marked as unavailable and set to private).…”

“…Knight and Gekker (2020) textually analyze a government policy document about the relational database system employed by ICE to track federal immigration, while Munn (2017Munn ( , 2019 critically and philosophically examines video documentation of public Palantir presentations about the Gotham interface on the company's official YouTube account (these videos are currently marked as unavailable and set to private). Our article thus addresses the concerns raised by Brayne (2020) and Knight and Gekker (2020), further emphasized by Munn (2017Munn ( , 2019, regarding the lack of investigative research studies on Palantir's products and outputs, using topic modeling of a large set of official Palantir data.…”

“…The company supplies information technology (IT) solutions for data integration and tracking to police and government agencies, humanitarian organizations, and corporations. A handful of qualitative studies have examined the use of Palantir's platform in police field operations through ethnographies (Brayne 2017(Brayne , 2020, legal case studies (Ferguson 2017), and critical and rhetorical analyses of Palantir-related marketing, reports, and public-facing literature describing Palantir's software products and services (Knight and Gekker 2020;Munn 2017Munn , 2019. While these qualitative studies are valuable for offering unique interpretive insights into Palantir, as are speculative descriptions of Palantir's surveillance capabilities in press reporting, significantly less attention has focused on potential opportunities afforded by quantitative, large-scale analyses of Palantir's publications and the ways that Palantir plans, imagines, and speaks about its surveillance capabilities within primary documents it publishes.…”

“…Others have reproached Palantir's unethical approaches and attendant shortcomings in responsible corporate conduct (Posner 2019). Yet, Palantir recently received a $20 billion valuation (Sen et al 2020), and there are only a few academic studies about the company's organizational aspirations and surveillance capabilities (Brayne 2017(Brayne , 2020Ferguson 2017;Knight and Gekker 2020;Munn 2017Munn , 2019. In this article, we contribute to this scholarship by providing firsthand, primary source documentation of Palantir's contracts and surveillance platform, supported by computational analysis of its published patents, thus offering insight into how Palantir documents its broad surveillance capabilities.…”

The Seer and the Seen: A Survey of Topics Found in Palantir Patents

“…The company supplies information technology solutions to government agencies, humanitarian organizations, and corporations, focusing specifically on data integration and surveillance services. Several qualitative studies have examined use of Palantir's products in field operations by police agencies through ethnography and legal case studies (Brayne, 2020;Ferguson, 2017) or have conducted critical and rhetorical analyses of Palantir's marketing, reports, and the public-facing associated literature describing Palantir's software products and services (Munn, 2017;Knight and Gekker, 2020).…”