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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

#91

Post by sandworm101 »

ipsin wrote: post #73

This is disturbing despite it being "optional", because it's a place for border agents to push in the entry interview. "I noticed you didn't fill out the question regarding online identity. Do you have an online identity?" Sure, you can (and should) tell the agent that's all personal information, but that may also lead to further hassles and delays.

What about those many of us who do not have facebook or twitter profiles? Are we now to be red-flagged as suspicious. Perhaps this is just a marketing stunt, an attempt to force more people onto US social media platforms.

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

#92

Post by Someone1234 »

e40 wrote: post #81
ipsin wrote: post #73

This is disturbing despite it being "optional", because it's a place for border agents to push in the entry interview. "I noticed you didn't fill out the question regarding online identity. Do you have an online identity?" Sure, you can (and should) tell the agent that's all personal information, but that may also lead to further hassles and delays.

Just like you can opt out of the body scan, which induces them to yell, in front of everyone, "OPT OUT!" and then you get to stand in a little roped off area and wait for a while. So, I agree, they'll make it as painful as possible to decline.

Opt out may not be an option[0]. Even though the scanners don't work[1].

[0] http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/23/travel/tsa-airport-screening-c... [1] http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/airport-security-price...

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

#93

Post by Karunamon »

throwawaysocks wrote: post #86
VLM wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not anymore. For better or worse the definition is being expanded such that we're all going to be classified as terrorists soon enough. Terrorists have fewer rights than the average citizen, so its inevitable. Am I a terrorist? Well, yes, yes I am. My wife donated some money to our local mainline Catholic church and they've participated in some anti-abortion activities and some define that as financial support of ter…

The term "terrorist" doesn't have a single fixed meaning. It's context-dependent. Pretending it's not context-dependent willfully misinterprets the speaker. A lot of words function like this. E.g., "believer". When a christian asks me if I'm a believer I might say yes. But then I'd probably say no if a wiccan asked me the same question. Obviously, that doesn't mean that everyone (or no one) is a believer once you fix…

While slippery slope might technically be a logical fallacy, it seems to be the MO of every government everywhere.

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

#94

Post by rbanffy »

If you consider Facebook, LinkedIn, Github, HN, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr, Google Plus (one profile for each Google-based e-mail I have), Live (one for each outlook.com e-mail I have) social networks, the field will have to be fairly large.

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

#95

Post by jobigoud »

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…

> And why would you be uncomfortable answering a question about whether your a terrorist or not?

You must have never been wrongly accused of anything.

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

#96

Post by TheSoftwareGuy »

dandelion_lover wrote: post #79
maze-le wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which will simply be filtered out These were the last words of the database admin before he went stark raving mad... But seriously "filtering out" is a goddamnd hard problem, if the dimensionality of your problem space is high enough. You are talking about filtering out sockpuppets like if they have a tcp-flag on it. Even the best trained Neural Network can only work as good as the input-training parameters, and cl…

There are no time limits. The complexity may be a problem now, but later the collected data will reveal anything they want about you.

>There are no time limits.

Yes there are, eventually you need to make a decision about whether to let this person into the country

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

#98

Post by geff82 »

At first I thought: giving this info might ease me from being treated as a semi-terrorist because I regularily visit Iran. Then I thought some more... my LinkedIn-Profile mentions I own a US company. Which is false, that mentioning there is only a means to get access to some groups and test waters as "if I was a local" because we consider moving there. I guess coming as a tourists and then DHS reads I have a company might lead to serious questions.Everything you do nowadays is a mean to surveil you.

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

#99

Post by Spooky23 »

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…

Considering recent events, they are probably looking for evidence that you are reposting ISIS propaganda or whatever the boogeyman of the day is.

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

#100

Post by SixSigma »

buro9 wrote: post #82
ipsin wrote: post #73

This is disturbing despite it being "optional", because it's a place for border agents to push in the entry interview. "I noticed you didn't fill out the question regarding online identity. Do you have an online identity?" Sure, you can (and should) tell the agent that's all personal information, but that may also lead to further hassles and delays.

You also shouldn't say that you don't, if you have... as this would be "fraud to gain access to the USA" which is a good way to never gain access to the USA. Therein lies a problem, just what is a social media account? Is it Facebook and Twitter? Or does it extend to networks like LinkedIn? Or forums like Hacker News? Do you have a Facebook account, if you believe that it has been deleted but you also suspect that te…

Plus: I have a MySpace account but no idea what the username is, likewise Habbo Hotel. What about any website with a forum facility? My Web browser remembers all the one off usernames I make up for sites and the Recover Password feature acts as my gatekeeper.
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