Five years of social media history, telephone numbers, emails, and family members’ names could be shared with Border Control for travellers going to the United States.
Travellers from 42 countries, including the UK, could soon be subject to searches while going on holiday abroad if a new proposition is passed.
In a proposal filed by the US Customs and Border Protection, social media would be considered a mandatory data element for anyone applying for an ESTA.
It cited Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14161, which focused on ‘protecting citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.’
Part of that executive order focused on increased screening and vetting for those trying to enter the United States.
If the US Customs proposal is approved, it would mean any resident from 42 countries who use ESTA for the US would have to provide their social media from the past five years.
The data collection could be dangerous for travellers, Paul Bernal, Professor of Information Technology Law at the University of East Anglia, told Metro, but it comes down to consent.
He explained: ‘Under most data protection laws, consent is the easiest way of getting around them. By applying for a visa, you are consenting to the terms of that visa. If terms of an ESTA were to include this, then effectively, the US has your consent.’
Bernal said there are issues with the proposal when it comes to privacy: ‘They know that anyone who’s been extremely anti-Trump, for example, on their social media, will simply say that that’s their social media. Then, when they find out it is, it’s easy to revoke the visa and deport.
‘But – are they asking you to tell them what your social media accounts are, or are they asking you to give them access to your social media account?’
All of the information listed in the proposal counts as personal data under European and UK privacy laws, Bernal said, but stressed – if someone agreed to the terms of the visa, they’ve essentially given their consent to share that.
What countries use ESTA for the United States?
- Australia
- Andorra
- Austria
- Belgium
- Brunei
- Chile
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Monaco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Qatar
- San Marino
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan*
- United Kingdom**
‘In many ways, I think this can probably be seen as a data grab for later use as much as anything else, rather than being necessarily relevant to the visa itself. If they say they’re gathering this data to determine whether to give you a visa, and it’s as simple as that, then they shouldn’t be able to use it for anything else, and they should delete it as soon as they suggest that you’re okay.
‘Will they be doing any of that? I doubt it. I think we have to ask why they’re doing it, not just why they say they’re doing it.’
Just yesterday, Trump said how bad Europe is about free speech and censorship in a damning interview.
Bernal adds: ‘This is every bit as bad as any of the stuff that’s going on in the EU and the UK in terms of free speech. That’s the big thing: none of this kind of ends here. All of this data goes to further use, further ideas, and so on.’
Professor Muttukrishnan Rajarajan, director of the Institute for Cyber Security at City, St George’s University of London, told Metro that several law enforcement agencies in the world already analyse social media analytics to counter terrorism.
‘However, collecting social media data over a 5-year period without anonymising the data is a privacy violation, as we leave a lot of traces about our personal and professional lives on social media,’ he said.
‘Sharing this personal social profile with other agencies would definitely be an intrusion on our privacy, as most of the privacy laws allow law enforcement to mine and profile our personal data for what is called “national security”.’
The plan won’t be approved for another 60 days, and is open to public comments if people object to the proposals.
What information would travellers have to provide?
- Travellers will also have to provide:
- Business email addresses used in the last ten years
- Telephone numbers used in the last five years
- Email addresses used in the last ten years
- IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos
- Family member names (parents, spouse, siblings, children)
- Family number telephone numbers used in the last five years
- Family member dates of birth
- Family members’ places of birth
- Family member residencies
- Biometrics – face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
- Business telephone numbers used in the last five years
Earlier this year, the Trump administration said it would review all 55,000,000 people on visas to see who should be deported.
Officials searched for visa holders who have exceeded their allowed stay, have committed criminal offences, posed a threat to safety, and have been involved in or support terrorist groups, among other types of violations.
The review includes looking at visa holders’ law enforcement and immigration records in their home countries, and even watching their social media accounts.
Applicants are required to set their social media accounts to public when going for a visa interview.
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