Quiz

Question 11

Have you ever been fingerprinted and booked into jail by the police?

Because you've been booked by the police

If you are booked into jail, police will collect biographical data, fingerprints, and a facial photograph. They may also store your voice prints and recordings of phone calls made from jail.

Databases that store criminalizing and biometric data include:

To see what databases would track you if your answer had been no, click the no button.

Even if the police have never collected your fingerprints, they may have access to that and other biometric data. For example, if you have ever had a U.S. travel, work, or student visa, DHS databases may have your fingerprints, headshots, iris scans, or palm prints.

Your biographical information and photographs may also be stored in criminalizing databases if you:

  • live in an area that police claim has gang activity;
  • have family or community who are in gangs;
  • are Black or brown or immigrant; and/or 
  • are thought to have ties to people suspected to be involved in terrorism

Some data systems you may encounter, in addition to the ones already named, include: 

To see what databases would track you if your answer had been yes, click the yes button.

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Of the 13 monsters in this quiz, it looks like your data may be tracked by the following:

But there may be other smaller surveillance databases not covered in the quiz.

You may be asking yourself "What can we do?".

What now?

To learn more, check out the full From Data Criminalization to Prison Abolition Report.

Learn how you can Take Action

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More about this quiz

There is no single database that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can consult to find a list of everyone they are able to deport.

As a workaround, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cross-checks many existing datasets. They use information from international visitors, visa holders, and arrest and conviction records. These datasets are not always reliable  at determining legal status. They are also deeply flawed, racist, and xenophobic.

More and more, DHS buys data from corporations to supplement their own databases. They can buy archives of location history, face and voice recognition files, and iris scans. Artificial intelligence tools use this data to predict behavior and infer relationships between people, places, and objects (like vehicles).

We spent months researching databases and data-sharing. But contractors and technologies change all the time, and many government data systems are shrouded in secrecy. We do not claim that the databases listed here make up a complete list, nor is it possible to make that list. Rather, we hope that this tool hints at the tangled and complex web of data extraction and criminalization.

The fight against migrant exploitation, racist border securitization, and deportation is a fight against data criminalization. It is a fight for collective self-determination and data liberation. Read more in our full report.