How OpenAI, the US government and Persona built an identity surveillance machine
vmfunc.re
February 18, 2026
38 min read
Summary
OpenAI, the US government, and Persona have developed an identity surveillance system that compiles reports on individuals for federal authorities. The system, known as openai-watchlistdb.withpersona.com, has access to data on 27 million individuals.
Key Takeaways
- OpenAI, the US government, and Persona have developed an identity surveillance system that files reports on individuals to federal authorities.
- The surveillance system utilizes facial recognition algorithms to assess users' identities and check them against watchlists.
- The research conducted on this system was based on publicly available information and did not involve unauthorized access to any systems.
- The authors of the document have taken precautions to ensure the safety of their findings and have distributed them widely to trusted third parties.
Community Sentiment
NegativeConcerns
- The platform's reliance on biometric face databases and extensive verification checks raises significant privacy and ethical concerns, particularly regarding surveillance and potential misuse of data.
- The tagging of Suspicious Transaction Reports with intelligence program codenames suggests a troubling level of government oversight and potential overreach in monitoring individuals.
- The ability to flag users as 'suspicious entities' based solely on facial recognition poses serious risks for discrimination and wrongful profiling.
Source
vmfunc.re
Published
February 18, 2026
Reading Time
38 minutes
Relevance Score
51/100
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