U.S. Visitors May Be Asked for Social Media Information

[taxout]

"The federal government has proposed adding a line to forms filled out by visitors to the United States that would ask them to voluntarily disclose their social media accounts, a step that it said would help in screening for ties to terrorism. . . . Legislation pending in Congress would require the Department of Homeland Security to collect social media information from foreign visitors."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/us/homeland-security-social-media-border-protection.html

The precise question apparently would be, "Please enter information associated with your online presence — Provider/Platform — Social media identifier."

Even if you're American, you should be concerned as can be about this, because once the U.S. imposes a requirement like this, other countries often follow as a matter of reciprocity.

Actually, it sounds similar to the information form starting to be used in Thailand.

Edited June 29, 2016 by taxout

[OMGImInPattaya]

I don't understand your concern...you should not have a problem with law enforcement having the ability to review your public social media posts. It's not like they are asking you to "friend" the US Government, in which case all your private posts and musings would be visable as well.

Of course, this will do nothing to stop a would be terrorist from entering the country as they're hardly likely to answer truthfully if they had something to hide.

[taxout]

The actual words are "online presence." That's quite a bit more than Facebook and Twitter.

And of course, once they've matched up your real name with your various online identities, they'll be able to search back to those years when you thought there was some anonymity on the web.

It's a valuable right to be able to discuss politics, social issues, health care, you name it, anonymously. And it's a right I treasure.

I assume OMGIminPattaya isn't the name on your passport.

Edited June 29, 2016 by taxout

[kannot]

they can go get fooooooked imo

[Torrens54]

Nothing to hide, nothing to worry about! Except [CENSORED] ....................

Edited June 29, 2016 by Torrens54

[manarak]

I don't understand your concern...you should not have a problem with law enforcement having the ability to review your public social media posts. It's not like they are asking you to "friend" the US Government, in which case all your private posts and musings would be visable as well.

Of course, this will do nothing to stop a would be terrorist from entering the country as they're hardly likely to answer truthfully if they had something to hide.

ha ha ha.

private posts not visible to the government for the purpose of terrorism detection?

LOL. just LOL.

such practices by governments just mean everyone should setup a clean email, FB and phone number for breaches of privacy by the government.

any other activity you don't want your children, wife, parents or work colleagues to know about will have to be performed on a dedicated phone or tablet that will never be used to login to any other "online presence", because platforms like Facebook and Google are extremely intrusive, any device logging in to more than one FB account will cause "do you know..." questions in all your address book.

[gk10002000]

Anything starting with "Please..", is to me a request, and not a requirement. Lots of people and organizations ask me for things all the time.

[gk10002000]

I don't understand your concern...you should not have a problem with law enforcement having the ability to review your public social media posts. It's not like they are asking you to "friend" the US Government, in which case all your private posts and musings would be visable as well.

Of course, this will do nothing to stop a would be terrorist from entering the country as they're hardly likely to answer truthfully if they had something to hide.

The US constitution originally intended for ALL personal correspondence, materials, documents, etc. were private property and protected and not viewable or can't be seized without a court order. The US supreme court over the years has unfortunately ruled in many cases that any thing transmitted over the airwaves or by any electronic media is in the public domain and therefore no warrants are needed. Bad bad and wrong. One's personal affairs are one's personal affairs until and unless reasonable cause is shown to a magistrate.

[OMGImInPattaya]

The actual words are "online presence." That's quite a bit more than Facebook and Twitter.

And of course, once they've matched up your real name with your various online identities, they'll be able to search back to those years when you thought there was some anonymity on the web.

It's a valuable right to be able to discuss politics, social issues, health care, you name it, anonymously. And it's a right I treasure.

I assume OMGIminPattaya isn't the name on your passport.

"Social media" is by definition public...it's akin to walking around the town square wearing a sandwich-board or holding up a placard. If you want to discuss politics or whatever annonomously I suggest you pick a private place to do it.

And as I said, one can certainly limit who has access to one's social media posts and musings in the settings of these platforms, one can also choose platforms that are secure and respect user's privacy if that's a concern one has, and one can also decline to use these platforms altogether.

[OMGImInPattaya]

I don't understand your concern...you should not have a problem with law enforcement having the ability to review your public social media posts. It's not like they are asking you to "friend" the US Government, in which case all your private posts and musings would be visable as well.

Of course, this will do nothing to stop a would be terrorist from entering the country as they're hardly likely to answer truthfully if they had something to hide.

The US constitution originally intended for ALL personal correspondence, materials, documents, etc. were private property and protected and not viewable or can't be seized without a court order. The US supreme court over the years has unfortunately ruled in many cases that any thing transmitted over the airwaves or by any electronic media is in the public domain and therefore no warrants are needed. Bad bad and wrong. One's personal affairs are one's personal affairs until and unless reasonable cause is shown to a magistrate.

There is merit to your analogy when it comes to email and other direct person to person electronic communications, however, it breaks down when it comes to public postings on social media platforms.

[taxout]

"If you want to discuss politics or whatever annonomously I suggest you pick a private place to do it"

Then I welcome you to put action behind your words and change your handle to your real name here on this online presence.