I don't think Customs needs any help from the NSA. Search incoming passenger manifests for anyone with a return ticket more than 5 months from arrival, then just search twitter and facebook pages for anyone on that list. Voila!
German Girl Turned Away at Border Due to Private Facebook Messages
161–170 of 257 posts
Re: German Girl Turned Away at Border Due to Private Facebook Messages
#162Just a note of caution, a friend of mine wanted to send their daughter over to visit the US during the summer before she headed off to college. We were of course happy to let her stay at our place which is a good west coast starting point for things California. Somewhere in correspondence where she was trying to ask nicely if she could stay at our place she said "I could watch the kids or something" and later in that…
What is the logic or basic reason for this level of extreme prejudice against people doing basic work in another country? It seems to me that someone working in a country is going to be contributing.
Re: German Girl Turned Away at Border Due to Private Facebook Messages
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 100. NSA data that requires TS/SAP + full-scope poly to access. You may be over-estimating the classification level here. The government classification isn't about protecting the secrets of private citizens, only government secrets. I have some experience in this field - handling fingerprints of non-criminals which were classified at the bare minimum for the agency. It would not surprise me if any non-specific NSA…
> The government classification isn't about protecting the secrets of private citizens, only government secrets. Using that logic, Facebook private messages supplied courtesy of the NSA would be highly classified, considering their collection mechanism would be PRISM or similar closely-held programs. > I have some experience in this field - handling fingerprints of non-criminals which were classified at the bare mini…
That only flies if there is no other possible way for another agency to have acquired the information. An administrative subpoena would be one way to do it -- I expect there is a term for that sort of thing, although the obvious "warrant laundering" does not seem to pull up any meaningful hits in google.
BTW, unless something has changed since I was last in west virginia, fingerprint info is not widely available in the general case. You take prints from an arrestee or latents from an object, you send them to IAFIS for matching and they return hits which may not even include a copy of the matched prints depending on the circumstances.
Re: German Girl Turned Away at Border Due to Private Facebook Messages
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
How was she even attempting to do this when Canadians are limited to 6 months per year in the US?
AFAIK, it wasn't an arrangement she'd been in for a long time. I doubt she'd hit the six month point, and had been hoping to secure a visa to stay in the country legitimately.
Ack.. that's just incredibly poor judgement. If you have to lie to the officials when entering the country, you really shouldn't expect that a closer look later on is going to get you a visa - as soon as they discover you lied about it you're done for.
Re: German Girl Turned Away at Border Due to Private Facebook Messages
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
A friend of a friend (I know, I know) was stopped on the border between Canada and the US, and had her possessions searched. Inside they found her diary, which detailed her life and job in New York- which she shouldn't have had, because she was repeatedly entering the country on a tourist visa. She was rejected at the border. This may well be the same- even if the girl did not intend to show those messages to the bor…
How was she even attempting to do this when Canadians are limited to 6 months per year in the US?
Canadians don't need a visa for tourist visits to the US, and passports aren't stamped on exit. It's an incredibly BAD idea in my books, but it's still probably relatively easy for a Canadian to spend a whole lot of time in the US without getting flagged.
Re: German Girl Turned Away at Border Due to Private Facebook Messages
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
So because you think its unlikely that US immigration officials has access to private communications on FB, that speculation is enough to dismiss the whole article about how two young girls, traveling to the US with hopes and dreams to study the language and experience the world, and then at the border was interrogated and immediately sent back. Is it just me who feels that is a bit heartless?
Heartless, yes, but not outrageous. If a young Mexican woman showed up at the border with papers describing how she intends to work as an illegal nanny, would we react the same way?
There are over 11 million illegals in this country. The typical reaction is to give them extensive welfare, and in certain cases, job and tuition preferences over citizens.
Re: German Girl Turned Away at Border Due to Private Facebook Messages
#167Just a note of caution, a friend of mine wanted to send their daughter over to visit the US during the summer before she headed off to college. We were of course happy to let her stay at our place which is a good west coast starting point for things California. Somewhere in correspondence where she was trying to ask nicely if she could stay at our place she said "I could watch the kids or something" and later in that…
What is the logic or basic reason for this level of extreme prejudice against people doing basic work in another country? It seems to me that someone working in a country is going to be contributing.
Someone working in another country is doing work someone in the country could also be doing, depriving them of a potential job. That's why you need a visa.
Re: German Girl Turned Away at Border Due to Private Facebook Messages
#168Yes. When asked the reason for her visit she said it was to visit family, friends, and do an English course. Her Facebook "private messages" showed that she was there to be an au pair , which means to do housework and child-minding in return for money. In short, she was lying and got caught. And after all the recent brouhaha, are you surprised that the authorities had access to her "private" Facebook messages? Added…
The point is that she was caught only because the authorities had access to her Facebook messages. That's obviously why this story was submitted here. The only justification the executive branch has given for all these spying powers is anti-terror efforts. If the US border agents indeed obtained her private messages from Facebook (and not from her prospective employer), then this would show that the government's acce…
If they obtained it from NSA spying on facebook, yeah, that's bad...
But that seems really really unlikely. Much more likely is it was a piece of public information on facebook and she got busted.
Re: German Girl Turned Away at Border Due to Private Facebook Messages
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heartless, yes, but not outrageous. If a young Mexican woman showed up at the border with papers describing how she intends to work as an illegal nanny, would we react the same way?
There are over 11 million illegals in this country. The typical reaction is to give them extensive welfare, and in certain cases, job and tuition preferences over citizens.
Do you think that's the expressed intended reaction or an unintended result?
My guess is it would be difficult to find any piece of document where it states something along the lines of "The goal of this program is to make this country more appealing for illegal immigrants, by offering them extensive welfare and preferential job and tuition situations, especially over those of our citizens."
I think what's more likely is that you are citing unfortunate byproducts of an imperfect solution to a complicated problem. Not a "typical reaction."
I'm not an expert on these things, though.
Re: German Girl Turned Away at Border Due to Private Facebook Messages
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The government classification isn't about protecting the secrets of private citizens, only government secrets. Using that logic, Facebook private messages supplied courtesy of the NSA would be highly classified, considering their collection mechanism would be PRISM or similar closely-held programs. > I have some experience in this field - handling fingerprints of non-criminals which were classified at the bare mini…
That only flies if there is no other possible way for another agency to have acquired the information. An administrative subpoena would be one way to do it -- I expect there is a term for that sort of thing, although the obvious "warrant laundering" does not seem to pull up any meaningful hits in google. BTW, unless something has changed since I was last in west virginia, fingerprint info is not widely available in t…
Do you really believe they're getting administrative subpoenas to Facebook for every 18-year-old tourist who might do some side work?