Thomas A. Fine
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thomasafine.bsky.social
Thomas A. Fine
@thomasafine.bsky.social
Unix guru, Internet hacker, security curmudgeon, software engineer, politics fanatic, media critic, bike nerd, astronomy fan, history buff.
UltraFWP.
January 17, 2026 at 6:19 AM
And I don't mean to say that ICE was operating under these rules. We don't know because ICE rules aren't public.

But Ross was aware that rules like this exist elsewhere, and WHY they exist elsewhere, and yet he still made the decisions he made.
January 16, 2026 at 9:55 PM
It's being done on purpose, to move the country to violent conflict.
January 16, 2026 at 9:37 PM
Link to Facetec's page where DHS is listed:
www.facetec.com#page-blk-cli...
(But they do list over 80 clients/partners)
FaceTec.com | 3D Liveness, 3D Face Matching, UR Codes, OCR & NFCFaceTec.com – 3D Liveness, 3D Face Matching, UR Codes, OCR & NFC
Highest-rated 3D Face Authentication for iOS, Android & Webcam, with NIST/iBeta Level 1&2 Certified Anti-Spoofing.
www.facetec.com
January 16, 2026 at 7:50 PM
So after I wrote the above thread I went out to chill and hear some music, but someone else found that FaceTec lists DHS as one of their clients/partners, which would tend to confirm that their sofware was part of what DHS used to build their app.
bsky.app/profile/2000...
Judging by FaceTec's website, they are not making an app so much as they have developed code libraries that can be licensed and utilized in other applications. Their website has a "Clients & Partners" section including this lovely logo:
January 16, 2026 at 7:50 PM
Also, the NYT was making their analysis based on much better quality video than what I head (and this video confirms my analysis) while my later analysis was based primarily on the path that the cell phone in his left hand must have taken in order to see the frames of video that it recorded.
January 16, 2026 at 7:32 PM
And the reverse angle good quality video, also available on day one, showed his foot positions in what seemed to be consistent with the leaning position.
Given that another day one angle showed he had walked around the minivan, it was clear then that he head stepped in front of the minivan.
January 16, 2026 at 7:19 PM
Granted I was making assumptions. One was that you can't lean at that angle without leaning on something, and I knew he fired from his right hand so I assumed he leaned with his left hand on the hood just from those two pieces of information (leaning and gun-in-right-hand).
January 16, 2026 at 7:19 PM
And I'm not saying that the @nytimes.com stole my analysis. Just that, you know, I'm smarter than them, better than them, and they and you should follow me for more smarter, better, faster analysis.
January 16, 2026 at 7:02 PM
Reposted by Thomas A. Fine
Judging by FaceTec's website, they are not making an app so much as they have developed code libraries that can be licensed and utilized in other applications. Their website has a "Clients & Partners" section including this lovely logo:
January 16, 2026 at 2:03 AM
It's somewhat similar, but not identical, to a demo app from a company called FaceTec, based on this 2017 article.

www.forbes.com/sites/aaront...
This AI Tries To Figure Out If You're A Real Person
Facial recognition systems on phones are easily spoofed. Maybe a little AI could help.
www.forbes.com
January 16, 2026 at 12:23 AM
Here's a closeup of the app. I redacted the face of the civilian, FWIW, even though it's in the original.

Odd that it says Frame _your_ face. Unless of course it was just hacked together from something else. Maybe someone will recognize those framing lines from some other app?
January 16, 2026 at 12:15 AM
Looks like a photo of this app was just published today.
bsky.app/profile/obtu...
This photo by Mostafa Bassim shows an ICE agent scanning someone's face with a mobile app, quite possibly Mobile Fortify as first reported by @404media.co. This is the first image I've seen of the app's UI in action.

If you look closely, you can also see an interesting wristband on the agent.
January 16, 2026 at 12:15 AM
OK, Definitely just some thin app that sends everything to a backend server "in the cloud" for analysis, reporting, and long term storage.
January 15, 2026 at 11:38 PM
And note that I'm even more suspicious that they "internally" developed a multi-platform app. Maybe they internally developed a web app that frontends some commercial cloud service run by who knows who. But again, that brings us back to national security issues.
January 15, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Has anyone found a copy anywhere of the android or iphone app binary?

Or even a photo showing what the screen or icon looks like for this app?
January 15, 2026 at 11:28 PM