In Harris County, Texas, the ranks of those being tracked with electronic devices while awaiting trial skyrocketed from 27 people in 2019 to nearly 4,000 in 2021.The pandemic contributed to this growth, making the prospect of escaping prison and jail cells through electronic monitoring (EM) an attractive option.As Yeshimabeit Milner of Data for Black Lives reminds us, we need data but we must engage it “with an awareness of how it represents the product of a series of choices by those empowered to set the research agenda and conduct the studies — and on how those choices impact the outcome.” Fourth, though often overstressed by EM critics, electronic monitoring has severe effects on individuals in the many jurisdictions where user fees and other charges are exacted.While large EM programs like in Cook County, Illinois, and Ramsey County, Minnesota, do not charge fees, a recent report from the Fines and Fees Justice Center revealed how common user fees have become.Here a series of reports, webinars, toolkits, videos, online classes and research from Mijente, Just Futures Law, Community Justice Exchange and nearly a dozen other organizations have outed companies like Palantir, LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters as major players in tracking immigrants."