US Government Quietly Starts Asking Travelers for Social Media Accounts

[portlander23]

US Government Quietly Starts Asking Travelers for Social Media Accounts
Nadia Prupis
Common Dreams

The U.S. government has quietly started to ask foreign travelers to hand over their social media accounts upon arriving in the country, a program that aims to spot potential terrorist threats but which civil liberties advocates have long opposed as a threat to privacy.

The program has been active since Tuesday, asking travelers arriving to the U.S. on visa waivers to voluntarily enter information associated with their online presence, including "Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, as well as a space for users to input their account names on those sites," Politico reports.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security first proposed the idea in June, when it was met with opposition and criticism from rights groups, consumer advocates, and other entities, including the Internet Association, which represents Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

At the time, a coalition of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), among others, sent a letter to the government warning that many travelers would feel obligated to give their information to border agents and that the program would "fall hardest on Arab and Muslim communities, whose usernames, posts, contacts, and social networks will be exposed to intense scrutiny."

[mountain grammy]

1. Somehow, this doesn't seem like a bad idea..

If it asked of an American citizen, no way without due process, but travelers on visa waivers? Seems like a reasonable layer of caution. please feel free to give me all the reasons I'm wrong. The article mentions no guidelines or rules, and that's a problem, but, for now, the program is voluntary.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. One reason: mission creep

There is a history of our Gov't developing various tools and weapons on non-citizens, and then using the same on us.

Example: Biometric ID, was used in Iraq, citing terrorist control.
Sound wave and microwave technology, was used in Iraq.

closer to home:

Continual ratcheting up of invasive Gov't snooping without warrant and probable cause.
Due process has been very watered down.

[mountain grammy]

5. Yes, there's that

and I agree, it's an unsettling idea. It is still voluntary for those who get visa waivers, tourists, etc., but, you're right, due process is so diluted it almost doesn't exist anymore and who knows where it could lead. I might think my social media use is completely innocuous, while the trump government might lock me up, and I say that in all seriousness.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. We surf via VPN more often now

just because the Gov't hates the idea of anyone being online without being tracked in some way.

I am concerned because a lot of people now days are getting too used to being tracked, not realizing that by acquiescing, they are helping to erode the meaning of Constitutional rights.

[oberliner]

2. It's optional

and it's only for travelers to the US on visa waivers.

[dragonlady]

4. This would turn out to be useless for discovering terrorists

They would just make up parallel accounts with no problematic content and fill in the form with those.