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US Customs wants to collect social media account names at the border

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Re: US Customs wants to collect social media account names at the border

#51

Post by themartorana »

na85 wrote: post #39
mftsfh wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to make this claim from afar, without personal responsibility or regards to the real dangers present. As the recent attacks prove.

Ah yes, the brand new account shows up to defend the Israeli policy of apartheid and overt ethnocentrism. In before criticising Israel is antisemitic.

Ok how's this? Every (almost every?) mass-casualty attack inside Israel borders in the last say, almost 70 years, have come from ethnically/religiously similar people. These attacks happen at an alarming rate. You would like them to, for the sake of making you feel warm and fuzzier on the inside, not profile the people most likely to carry out such attacks in the future? That would be ridiculous.

Edit: before I get downvoted into oblivion, and I'm sure I might, I'd like to add that reality is almost always uglier than anyone - especially me - would like it to be.

Re: US Customs wants to collect social media account names at the border

#52

Post by ohitsdom »

dcw303 wrote: post #4

"Of course my good sir, it's @uspatriot2015." Now, let's all agree to not tell them we can have more than one account! Or to be slightly more specific, I'll give them the facebook account where I dutifully like all the boring funny dog videos and ugly baby photos of relatives, and I'll keep my seditious rabble rousing anti-establishment twitter ac to myself.

"Why not @uspatriot2016? What caused your views to change this year? Please come with me."

Re: US Customs wants to collect social media account names at the border

#53

Post by akerro »

josh_fyi wrote: post #29
ProfChronos wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed Israel does it, but only for Arabic or Muslim tourists that present certain characteristics - political engagement for instance. So it does exist but it's really not mainstream

At entry, Israeli border police check the online presence of a few people. This includes people, both Muslims and non-Muslims, identified as possibly being anti-Israel activists. The social media check cannot be automated. Border police at other countries also check online to follow up on the stories of a people who they stop as potentially not admissible.

>The social media check cannot be automated.

But it will be.

Re: US Customs wants to collect social media account names at the border

#54

Post by ohitsdom »

appleflaxen wrote: post #47

what an orwellian fucking nightmare. no better reason to delete your facebook account than this right here, folks.

Deleting your Facebook account isn't a sufficient answer. What about when they ask for your Hacker News account?

Re: US Customs wants to collect social media account names at the border

#56

Post by Cyph0n »

agotterer wrote: post #42
andreasklinger wrote: post #2

I was always very confused/amused by the questions at the border: "Are you a terrorist or affiliate with a terrorist organization?" "Are you a secret spy" Why would anyone say yes? What's the purpose of this. Do they just need it to avoid arguments like "we dont even ask?" A friend of mine explained it to me: - let's say that they have the suspicion or evidence that you are affiliated w/ a terrorist organization. by…

The border agents are looking for you to slip up or provide a tell. Asking questions like that may sound silly, but that's the point. They want to try to catch people off guard with unexpected questions and see how they react. These agents are trained to read your reaction and body language. Your body language and voice levels can help reveal some truth or at least the fact that you're uncomfortable answering the que…

Well I was asked a similar question but not in the US, and I can tell you that it can catch you off guard given the right circumstances, even if you aren't guilty. Are these guys trained enough to tell the difference?

The way I see it, it's not going to make the guilty people stumble, but it will lead to false positives. In the long run, I think asking such a question does more harm than good.

Re: US Customs wants to collect social media account names at the border

#57

Post by mchaver »

maze-le wrote: post #23

There was this idea floating around a few weeks ago, about a startup that curates online sockpuppets of obidient citizen personas (I think it was in response to landlords surveilling their future clients). What was sureley meant as sarcasm is looking more and more like a serious business model.

It is already happening in China:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System

Re: US Customs wants to collect social media account names at the border

#59

Post by DanBC »

Be interesting to see Facebook enforce (or modify to allow enforcement) their terms of service over this.

https://developers.facebook.com/policy/#thingstoknow

> 3.15 Don't use data obtained from Facebook to make decisions about eligibility, including whether to approve or reject an application or how much interest to charge on a loan.

(EDIT: I know this is the Platform Policy, and not the general TOS.)

Re: US Customs wants to collect social media account names at the border

#60

Post by ihsw »

ProfChronos wrote: post #10

I find it really problematic: when you fill the US borders paperwork, you are supposed to give objective admin/personal details while on social media you are supposed to speak up your mind. Where do you place the limit between somebody that publicly criticizes the US foreign policy and somebody that can be a threat? How are they going to handle people who posted something like "The US knew about the 9/11 attacks"?

There is already precedent for criminalizing dissent -- Turkey, for example, considers online criticism of Turkey as equivalent to damaging national security by spreading propaganda with the intent to provoke attacks towards the Turkish government.

It would be fair to assume the US would be open to such means to improve security.

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