{"id":1902,"date":"2025-12-10T16:23:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/badvibes.live\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2025-12-10T16:23:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:23:31","slug":"going-to-the-us-five-years-of-your-social-media-could-be-reviewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badvibes.live\/?p=1902","title":{"rendered":"Going to the US? Five years of your social media could be reviewed"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Five years of\u00a0social media<\/a>\u00a0history, telephone numbers, emails, and family members\u2019 names could be shared with Border Control for travellers going to the United States.<\/p>\n

Travellers from 42 countries, including the UK, could soon be subject to searches while going on holiday abroad if a new proposition is passed.<\/p>\n

In a proposal filed by the\u00a0US<\/a>\u00a0Customs and Border Protection, social media would be considered a mandatory data element for anyone applying for an ESTA.<\/p>\n

It cited\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s Executive Order 14161, which focused on \u2018protecting 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Part of that executive order focused on increased screening and vetting for those trying to enter the United States.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The data collection could be dangerous for travellers, Paul Bernal, Professor of Information Technology Law at the University of East Anglia, told BAD VIBES, but it comes down to consent.<\/p>\n

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He explained: \u2018Under 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

Bernal said there are issues with the proposal when it comes to privacy: \u2018They know that anyone who\u2019s been extremely anti-Trump, for example, on their social media, will simply say that that\u2019s their social media. Then, when they find out it is, it\u2019s easy to revoke the visa and deport.<\/p>\n

\u2018But \u2013 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?\u2019<\/p>\n

All of the information listed in the proposal counts as personal data under European and UK privacy laws, Bernal said, but stressed \u2013 if someone agreed to the terms of the visa, they\u2019ve essentially given their consent to share that.<\/p>\n

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\u2018In 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\u2019re gathering this data to determine whether to give you a visa, and it\u2019s as simple as that, then they shouldn\u2019t be able to use it for anything else, and they should delete it as soon as they suggest that you\u2019re okay.<\/p>\n

\u2018Will they be doing any of that? I doubt it. I think we have to ask why they\u2019re doing it, not just why they say they\u2019re doing it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Just yesterday, Trump\u00a0said how bad Europe is about free speech and censorship<\/a>\u00a0in a damning interview.<\/p>\n

Bernal adds: \u2018This is every bit as bad as any of the stuff that\u2019s going on in the EU and the UK in terms of free speech. That\u2019s the big thing: none of this kind of ends here. All of this data goes to further use, further ideas, and so on.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Professor Muttukrishnan Rajarajan, director of the Institute for Cyber Security at City, St George\u2019s University of\u00a0London<\/a>, told\u00a0Metro<\/strong>\u00a0that several law enforcement agencies in the world already analyse social media analytics to counter terrorism.<\/p>\n

\u2018However, 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,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sharing 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 \u201cnational security\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n

The plan won\u2019t be approved for another 60 days, and is open to public comments if people object to the proposals.<\/p>\n

What information would travellers have to provide?<\/h2>\n
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Travellers will also have to provide:<\/p>\n