CBP's AI Scanners Are Now Predicting Illegal Crossings 72 Hours Before They Happen — Privacy Groups Sound Alarm
A controversial new pilot program by United States Customs and Border Protection is using advanced artificial intelligence to analyze social media, financial transactions, and travel patterns, claiming it can predict and intercept border crossings days in advance. Early results boast a 94% interception rate of smuggled contraband and a dramatic drop in undocumented migration attempts. However, civil liberties advocates are calling it an unprecedented "digital dragnet" that snoops on all traveler data — not just suspects — raising fears of a terrifying new era of pre-crime surveillance at the border. With the agency now lobbying to extend the system to airports nationwide, Americans face a stark choice: total security or total privacy?