CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, WOULD LIKE TO ASK TRAVELLERS FOR THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA DETAILS

Customs and Border Protection, within the Department of Homeland Security, would like to ask travellers for their social media detail.

 

 

 

 

By David Muli

 

Travelers seeking visa waiver entry to the US may soon be asked to list their social media profiles - if a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposal is enacted. An update to application forms would ask users to identify what social networks they use and their social media identifier such as a username however, revealing this information would be optional.

The proposal was added to the Federal Register by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the DHS will be used to any data travellers choose to share will be used for vetting purposes, as well as applicant contact information.

Public comment - which must be submitted by post - will be sought for 60 days before the CBP considers it further.

A spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents pointed out that the proposal was not guaranteed to go ahead. Just as with any change in entry requirements, the DHS will need to balance security issues against the need to encourage people to visit their country.

Last year, MSNBC published a memo in which it appeared that officials dropped a plan to vet visa - not visa waiver - applicants' social media activity. Recently, the United States updated its policy on visa waiver programs regarding visitors who had a second citizenship in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan - or who had visited those countries within the last five years.