Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

101–110 of 253 posts

Re: U.S. To Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country

#101
For any Americans thinking 'well, at least this doesn't affect me as a natural born citizen', you should be aware that one of the most common principles applied to visa and passport control activity by countries is 'reciprocity'. That is, countries look at how the US treats their citizens at the American port of entry, and turn around and apply that same standard to Americans.

So the next time you turn up at the Canadian border and are asked to produce your facebook account details... this is why.

Re: U.S. To Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country

#102

Uh... isn't that the entire point of a background check? To see if people are dangerous before they get in? If I get a gun permit, should the cops not look at every public aspect of my history? Should we make it easier for people to have guns? Now the next snarky comment will say "guns aren't people." Yeah. But a background check is a background check. What happens when a terrorist gets in (surely that'll never happe…

Social media accounts aren't "public history". They're probably the single most private sphere for many people. If you got to read all my private messages on Facebook, you'd know me better than my parent and my girlfriends together.

And a "background check" isn't a "background check". It's a completely vague concept, from some prospective employer calling one or two references all the way to the 8-months process of obtaining a security clearance.

That's really easy to see if you consider what kind of activities involve some sort of "background check": employment (see above), getting on a plane, opening a bank account, getting a loan, taking a tour of the Capitol: while each one of these is technically "voluntary", it'd be a distinction without a difference if they added this as a requirement for such activities.

Re: U.S. To Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country

#103
post #28
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe 50 should be the upper bound. I'm in my fifties and have never had any sort of social media account. Many of my high school and college classmates are similarly situated. None of the major social media platforms were founded before I was in my mid-forties, which is why there was never any incentive to start any accounts. I enjoy getting older. It spares me a lot of drama.

>Maybe 50 should be the upper bound. I'm in my fifties and have never had any sort of social media account. Are you not posting here?

Can you explain how you see Hacker News as social media?

Re: U.S. To Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country

#104
post #2

Previous discussion few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15337961

The best suggestion I found in this other thread was for every country to follow strict reciprocity with American visitors to their country. I'd love to see Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg's social media profiles get splashed on some national newspaper's front page because someone sneaked in a camera phone into the review room.

Re: U.S. To Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By this logic, when this administration starts discriminating people who are into programming ("they cause cyber terrorism," might be the excuse) we shall all "get the fuck off programming"?

i follow your logic but respectively disagree - there are so many good reasons delete your facebook account at this point - and lets face it, when they say "social media" they mean facebook

They probably also care about the videos you watch, the keyword you search, the private conversations you have on chat apps.

Re: U.S. To Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country

#106
post #91
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I used to visit a lot for business, and would love to go back on holiday too, but at this rate I'm not sure I want to. So far it's mostly been that I don't really have a compelling reason to visit, and it's just been tipping the scales in favor of other vacation locations etc., but the more stuff like this, the less attractive it gets. It doesn't even need to affect me directly - it just contributes to an overal…

The majority of people in the US disagree with everything going on right now and we welcome everyone. We will right the ship in the next 2-3 years.

Honestly, as an American, I wouldn't be so hopeful. People were 100% sure things would turn out differently just a year ago, and anyone who said differently was openly mocked for being delusional. Things are going to get far worse before they get better. Even then, just thinking a different president will fix anything is part of the problem.

Re: U.S. To Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country

#107
post #7

Something to realize here: If you're between 10 and 60 years old, "I don't use social media" will likely not really be an answer at the border. Even a barely-used account will not really be an answer. They're going to be able to say you're probably just hiding your real account. That could factor into denying you entry into a country. If this becomes common with many countries, it could become de facto illegal to kee…

> If you're between 10 and 60 years old, "I don't use social media" will likely not really be an answer at the border. Even a barely-used account will not really be an answer.

Why not? According to an article I read, only about 75% of US teens use Instagram and a similar amount use Snapchat (the only media the article gave). Quite frankly, about 10-20% of even First World populations don't use social media or use it very lightly. That's not particularly uncommon.

Re: U.S. To Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country

#108
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if you are not attempting to stay here then (if I understand this correctly) you will not need to release your social media information.

Edited/removed as I made an incorrect point

Reread the article. You are wrong.

Re: U.S. To Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country

#109
Which will probably lead to a massive uptick in the number of fake, or ghost profiles on social media. Before entering the U.S., people will create fake social media profiles that are sanitized, and make them appear as God fearing, peaceful individuals. Then some company will get the bright idea of doing this for them, resulting in an utter waste of U.S. time, and resources.

Re: U.S. To Collect Social Media Data on All Immigrants Entering Country

#110
post #7

Something to realize here: If you're between 10 and 60 years old, "I don't use social media" will likely not really be an answer at the border. Even a barely-used account will not really be an answer. They're going to be able to say you're probably just hiding your real account. That could factor into denying you entry into a country. If this becomes common with many countries, it could become de facto illegal to kee…

Then this is crap. Yes, I have FB, but I _view_ it maybe once per month. I _post_ far less frequently. Twitter? Sure, I follow my local city tweets so I know about things like power outages and when the trees will be cleared after the hurricane. Some of us just don't need the world to know everything about us all the time. I'm convinced there's two types of people. Those who draw energy from other people and those of…

> I'm convinced there's two types of people. Those who draw energy from other people and those of us who get peopled out after a short time and need to be alone for a while to recharge.

That is exactly the definition of extroversion in the first case versus introversion in the second case.

Post reply on HN