U.S. to Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country - nytimes

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security will soon begin collecting social media data from all immigrants entering the United States, part of what agency officials call an effort to more effectively screen those coming to the country but privacy advocates see as an unnecessary intrusion that would do little to protect national security.

The department will begin collecting the information on Oct. 18, the same day the Trump administration’s new travel ban on citizens of seven countries and restrictions on those from two others are set to take effect.

Green card holders and naturalized citizens will also have their social media information collected, with the data becoming part of their immigration file. It was unclear whether the monitoring would take place only in the application process or 

The department published the new requirement in the Federal Register last week, saying it would collect “social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information and search results,” which would be included in an applicant’s immigration file. It said the data would come from “publicly available information obtained from the internet, public records, public institutions, interviewees, commercial data providers.”

“This would undoubtedly have a chilling effect on the free speech that’s expressed every day on social media,” Faiz Shakir, the national political director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “This collect-it-all approach is ineffective to protect national security and is one more example of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda.”

Efforts to collect social media information are not unique to the Trump administration. During the Obama administration, the department had begun asking visitors to voluntarily provide social media information, and had four pilot screening programs.

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the part of the Department of Homeland Security that approves citizenship and green cards, has previously used social media as part of the screening process for Syrian refugees, but only when the person was flagged because of a hit in an intelligence database or when questions were raised during an interview with immigration officials. - Read More

U.S. to Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country ...