Security → US Customs wants to collect social media account names at the border

Being a Twitter and Facebook user, this raised some eyebrows where I hang out.

quote:

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Your Twitter handle may soon be part of the US visa process. Yesterday, US Customs and Border Protection entered a new proposal into the Federal register, suggesting a new field in which persons entering the country can declare their various social media accounts and screen names. The information wouldn’t be mandatory, but the proposed field would still provide customs officials with an unprecedented window into the online life of travelers. The process already includes fingerprinting, an in-person interview, and numerous database checks.

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[...]

»www.theverge.com/2016/6/ ··· nstagram

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Sapere aude - dare to know, dare to be wise ...

Of concern yes, but clearly a response to San Bernadino, Orlando, etc. and understandable as such.

It wouldn't apply to Canadian tourist visitors to the US because they don't need visas.

This relates to visa issuance.

Not sure I agree at this point, but I understand.

That's birdbrained. I suppose that those of us who value our privacy and have no "social" media accounts would likely be considered "dangerous" because we do care about freedom and liberty which depend on privacy. I suppose we would find it necessary to lie and make up twitter and facebook handles. What insanity! (I know one is supposed to be "truthful" when setting up such accounts but I also know many lie and are not caught).
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When governments fear people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. Thomas Jefferson

I wish it was birdbrained. I posted last year that some law enforcement official stated that if you don't have a FB account, you are a terrorist.

Here's one way social crap is used now:
»www.techdirt.com/article ··· hdirt%29

here's another:
»mashable.com/2016/06/26/ ··· %20shape

I'm anti-social, and that's it.

Gag. Those articles made me want to vomit. It's bedtime. How am I going to sleep with that garbage on my mind? The first article is terrifying but not at all surprising to me. It's what the sheeple want. The second one made my blood boil. Those idiots understand nothing. I can't elaborate as anything I would say would impinge on my privacy but they do NOT know what they are talking about in regards to suicide in general and therefore gathering data from "volunteers" (brainwashed sheeple...the very ones that don't have it in them to cure themselves...someone else has to help...bullshit...the strength and commitment come from within or not and NO ONE can help...only the impacted person can fix it) is a serious waste of a person's privacy for no good reason.

I guess I didn't see your post (or forgot) about a law enforcement official stating that if you don't have a FB account then you are a terrorist. That's not surprising after I think about it as only conforming sheeple are wanted in this nation these days. If you think for yourself and blaze your own trail in life then in the current atmosphere in the USA you are "suspect" although time was when true individuals and trail blazers were admired and parents encouraged their children to do the same.
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When governments fear people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. Thomas Jefferson

Big Data... The Cause And The Solution To All Life's Problems(TM) I need that printed
on a tshirt.

....and yeah, No Thanks to THIS harebrained scheme.

To play Devil's Advocate, didn't they try this same arguement "if we collected more Big Data, we
could have predicted 9/11?" To me, and we never seem to learn this lesson, it's not the COLLECTION
that's the problem, it's the COLLATION / CORRELATION of the data.

My Useless But Opinionated 00000010bits(TM)

Regards

It would be helpful to be able to predict suicides and intervene, but even better would be access to mental health. If people could get help before they get that depressed wouldn't that be better? I know of people that have committed serious crimes just so they could go to prison and get treatment and the med's they need. They already have more data than they can process. They're choking on it. Notice how just a few hours after a mass murder all this info about an attacker comes out, what he said, where he went, what religion he belonged to and all kind of red flags that were unnoticed or ignored till afterwards. Big data isn't about protecting us, it's about controlling and selling us. First it's voluntary (as in the OP) to get us used to it, then down the road it becomes mandatory. How long before you have to have social media accounts to get credit or a drivers license etc. Not angry, but I am disillusioned and sad for my country and my people. In the end things will be ok, but it's gonna get worse before it gets better. Sometimes sheeple just have to learn the hard way.
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Ingenious will probably succeed. Stupid will probably fail. But really really stupid is guaranteed to succeed.

Just an opinion, but...

In my case, my family has lived here for over 250 years, many of my relatives and ancestors have worked for and been involved with the federal government, I have been fingerprinted and photographed many times, I have no "social" accounts as for me it is a waste of time and in no way important in my life, therefore the government is not an issue for me.

What IS an issue is far too many "private" companies who want to know far too much personal information and who have few restraints on how they behave and what they do with it. For example (one of a great many): I recently went to look at an online account for a credit card which I have had for almost 30 years, I have done so many times, yet the card company said that they stopped allowing Internet Explorer 10 to be used, I am anything but a "newbie" and fully understand what I am doing yet this behavior on their part is akin to telling me what clothes to wear, what house to live in and where it can be located, what food to eat, and other personal matters in life. I then called them and the first thing was a "prerecorded" message stating that the call "was being recorded" (for quality purposes), when I got a person I said that "I MAY" record the call (note, I said "may", not that I actually was) and the person said flatly that I I recorded the call then he would hang up without speaking with me.

I hung up and called back and asked to speak with a supervisor, the supervisor only gave a first name and refused to give a last name. This is how they treat customers of 30 years while they repeatedly praise my great credit rating!

Therefore... this is one reason I have no difficulty with the government employees I speak with (who give their full names and do not care if I record the call, I do not record, but merely see how they react), and is why I have slowly over a great many decades come to loathe, despise and detest a great many private companies who can best be described as "expletives deleted"

 
Just to emphasize, this is proposed for non-US citizens.

From TFA:

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...The proposal focuses on arrival / departure forms commonly collected from non-citizens at the US border, as well as the electronic form used for anyone entering the country under a visa waiver. Under the proposed changes, those forms would include a new optional data field prompting visitors to "please enter information associated with your online presence," followed by open fields for specific platforms and screen names....

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I don't do Facebook or Twitter, and I'm definitely not a terrorist. I have no need for "social media."

Assinine...

You made than abundantly clear more times than I'd care to count

Good point. The government is to some degree accountable to us, while the corporations don't seem to be accountable to anyone. My problem is with upper management-corporate and government, colluding to increase obscene profits for CEO's and politicians alike. It's just that I've seen some things that applied to a small group become the rule for everybody. The more they get, the more they want. Giving more power and money to them is like giving a junkie more heroin. FWIW when I rant about the gov't or MS etc, I'm talking about the ones at the top that give the orders and set the tone for their organizations, not the whole outfit.
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Ingenious will probably succeed. Stupid will probably fail. But really really stupid is guaranteed to succeed.

This is causing a lot of folks to write about as did Kashmir Hill of @Fushion.net

quote:

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That’s according to a government notice published this week to the Federal Register, spotted by technologist Joseph Lorenzo Hall. Customs and Border Patrol wants to add the following to ESTA, a visa waiver application, and to Form I-94W, the form that non-citizens have to fill out when entering and leaving the country:

“Please enter information associated with your online presence—Provider/Platform—Social media identifier.”

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»fusion.net/story/318845/ ··· l-forms/

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Sapere aude - dare to know, dare to be wise ...

And the verification process for this atrocious endeavor is? This has the capability of backfiring in numerous ways & also being used against individuals with proper pre-planning by unscrupulous parties.

For me, all the more reason to avoid travel south of the 49th parallel if this becomes policy... Just "No Thanks"

said by fusion.net :

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It seems clear that the government is hoping the information would help it spot people who might reveal on their social media accounts devious plans for their time in the U.S.

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said by fusion.net :

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But, given that the field is optional, someone like an illegal drug importer would probably just leave this field blank, making it not especially useful. Instead, it might, in the long run, be a way to flag “nefarious” and/or privacy-minded travelers: they’ll be the only ones not willing to hand over their Facebook name.

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+9000 on this. Wonder if the bright bulbs drafting this up ever thought of these possibilities.

My 00000010bits

Regards

From: »www.federalregister.gov/ ··· ddresses (the Federal Register blurb): I wonder how long it will remain 'optional' and, more significantly, whether failing to enter the information when one indeed has a social media presence (there are some independent ways to check into that) will itself trip any investigatory red flags.
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The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. -- A. de Tocqueville

And I thought we were friends Bob or are you just venting

Funny. They cant even stop the random attacks now. What a waste. FBI is fully to blame this last round. That store owner done the right thing and was ignored. Then that happened by no surprise. Nothing surprises me in America any more. And the shock value means nothing and just turn the channel. I have become immune to it. I always do feel for the victims though. You never know any more when and where. It could be you. Its the times we are living in.

This is losing traction as it's a USA | DHS | Homeland thing YAWN

Loose Lips sink ships ?

The federal government is taking another step it says would make the US homeland safer from terrorism. US border authorities are proposing that millions of tourists entering the country each year reveal their social media identities.

David Kravets of @Arstechnica.com writes:
»arstechnica.com/tech-pol ··· pection/

It probably started losing traction when people realized the bad guys can simply walk across the border, so it's evident this has little meaning in terms of vetting real-world terrorists... ie: indeed, it's a typical USA | DHS | Homeland thing.
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The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. -- A. de Tocqueville

It has nothing to do with preventing terrorism. Too much live data to be useful. Drinking from a fire hose is a sure way to rip your lips off.

It is all about being able to take down any person TLAs want to. With all the retroactive data there will be SOMETHING they can hang their hat on against any Tom, Dick and Harry (Jefferson, Nixon, Truman ) that rubs/looks at them the wrong way.
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Keep It Safe, Stupid!

Yes, I CanChat. Can You?

This is why I carry multiple social accounts, a personal, a professional, and a fantasy account. Depending upon who you are determines which account you have knowledge of. Until the sites start tracking IP/MAC addresses (and that's not foolproof either) anything on the net can be a total fabrication.

THAT is the kind of people the antiterrorism task force is looking for!. they look for people that "don't fit in". that's the way they think!. nothing personal intended!.

Who in their right mind would volunteer this??

We're still friends, no worries!

I'm not antisocial. I love mankind. It's people I can't stand...

The same people that respond to spam emails and those in total fear of any authority figure. Unfortunately those are high numbers.

I hope that they have a bit of time and plenty of room to write and for attachments. Do they seriously want every social media presence, like DSL Reports? Or doesn't DSL Reports count? If it does count the number of forums and other places that I have posted on the Internet numbers in the 100s I don't even remember them all. What about IRC? If you list the accounts you want then they just make sure they don't have "dangerous" accounts there.

This idea is just bad as it relies on people with an intent to do bad things telling the truth up front. Laws based upon the idea that all people are honest are too flawed to even think about.
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All opinions are my own and should not be attributed to any other person or organization.

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." - Robert A. Heinlein

And when you enter "Not Applicable" or "None" and the CBP guy doesn't believe you, how do you prove a negative?

"If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged."
--Cardinal Richelieu of France