Surveilled and Sold, Feet in 2 Worlds

Surveilled and Sold  is a four-part, original investigation about how surveillance technologies track immigrants in an era of mass deportation — and the ways corporations and the U.S. government buy, sell, and exchange our personal data. In this investigative series, I illustrate the vast surveillance network of automated license plate readers in Portland, Oregon. Through thorough analysis of public records requests, the report further uncovers the ease with which law enforcement agencies access the collected data and share it with federal agencies like ICE, rendering the city's sanctuary protections ineffective.

PART 1:"Surveilled and Sold: Privacy and Sanctuary in Portland"

Being trailed on the drive to work, noticing high-tech cameras pop up in parking lots they frequent — these are all familiar and recent experiences to the immigrant workers gathered at a local worker center in Portland, Oregon.

PART 2: “In Montana, A New Data Privacy Law Aims to Protect Everyone — Regardless of Status”

Immigrants and January 6th insurrectionists don't seem to have much in common – except what they stand to gain from a new data privacy law introduced in Montana.

Published with funding from the Solutions Journalism Network, this article follows state and local legislators in two states at opposite ends of the political spectrum — Oregon and Montana — as they attempt to protect the privacy of their residents and address overreach by federal law enforcement.

Coming up…

PART 3: Cameras hidden in strollers, on pen caps, even in bathrooms. With half of U.S. households using at least one security camera inside their homes, domestic workers — many of whom are immigrant women — tolerate more surveillance in their workplace than most.

This story explores the growing relationships between home monitoring companies like Ring and law enforcement agencies, and what domestic workers like nannies, house cleaners, and home health aides are doing to protect themselves.

PART 4: Tech companies, local law enforcement, and federal agencies all share their surveillance in a network of data that is constantly growing. That data is also available to law enforcement agencies through commercial subscriptions.

When profitable contracts are on the line and the only firewalls are deals that haven't been struck yet, what protections can citizens advocate for?

Illustrations by Dabin Han

Selected reporting at Business Insider

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