Civil Liberties, Tech Groups Slam DHS Plan to Collect Social Media Data From Foreign Visitors
Human rights, civil liberties and technology groups are lambasting a Department of Homeland Security proposal that calls for foreign visitors to voluntarily provide their Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other personal social media data as a way to further vet them. One civil liberties coalition, which includes Access Now, the Center for Democracy and Technology and Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the plan would be invasive, ineffective and costly. One think tank said the government should be given an opportunity to experiment and assess how such data can be used -- with proper privacy protections.
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Since the 60-day comment period just closed, DHS will now review the comments and respond once that process is complete, emailed a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which posted the proposal in a June Federal Register notice. Then, an additional 30-day public review and comment period will be followed by a review by the Office of Management and Budget. "The proposed question may only be added after these steps have occurred and OMB approves," the spokesman emailed.
Visitors would be asked for optional information about the social platforms they use, including their "social media identifier" or screen names. "Collecting social media data will enhance the existing investigative process and provide DHS greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections by providing an additional tool set which analysts and investigators may use to better analyze and investigate the case," the notice said. The spokesman said the social media "question will be clearly marked as 'optional' on the revised" Electronic System for Travel Authorization application. Visitors from the 38 visa waiver countries -- where passport holders can come into the U.S. for 90 days without a visa -- are required to fill out the ESTA in advance. "Providing this information is voluntary," the spokesman emailed. "Choosing not to provide this information will not result in a denial of an ESTA application."
But Rita Cant, Center for Democracy & Technology's free expression legal fellow, said in an interview Wednesday that foreign visitors may feel compelled to disclose that information because the stakes may be high for them. If somebody declines to disclose, "there is absolutely going to be negative inferences drawn ... and there's no guarantee in this proposal that those inferences won't be made," she said.
Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Sophia Cope called the CBP plan "flawed," saying in a blog post Monday it would affect freedom of expression while doing little to enhance security. She said "would-be terrorists" wouldn't provide such information about themselves, and the plan is "vague and overbroad" and would violate privacy of innocent people. "Sharing your social media account information often means sharing political leanings, religious affiliations, reading habits, purchase histories, dating preferences, and sexual orientations, among many other personal details," Cope wrote.
CDT's Cant said requests for such essentially First Amendment activities are "incredibly invasive," while providing "very minimal" benefits to enhance national security. It seems like "an effort to expand the surveillance state by identifying people with all kinds of social media accounts and activities and thereby creating a larger, more expansive databases that can then be used for all sorts of intrusions, further government surveillance efforts, and data requests from technology companies," she said.
The Internet Association, which provided us with comments submitted to DHS, said members -- which include Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter -- have "concerns about the precedent setting nature of the proposal as currently drafted." IA said other countries, both democratic and nondemocratic, might make similar requests of visitors, including U.S. citizens. The association said some of the other countries may not have the same U.S. standards for human rights and due process, and might make their requests mandatory. "It is possible that the proposal will have a chilling effect on use of social media networks, online sharing and, ultimately, free speech online," the letter said.
CBP "should be investigating this," said Daniel Castro, director of the Center for Data Innovation. "It doesn't make sense to take that off the table, because there's certainly potential there." The data could be used in a lot of ways beyond trying to identify whether someone is a terrorist, who more than likely wouldn't want to provide social media information, he told us Wednesday: The data could help CBP positively identify an individual with a name similar to someone on the terrorist watch list and process that person more quickly.
Castro said he understands the "instinctive reaction" from civil liberties and other groups, but said there isn't anything wrong with government using public information that's voluntarily submitted to improve its operations. Instead of CBP asking whether it should collect such information, Castro said the conversation would have been more productive if it asked how it should use the data. In its comments, the center said the agency should consult with Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and others to design a system that protects people's information and privacy.