US Customs Wants To Know Travelers' Social Media Account Names (helpnetsecurity.com) 397
Orome1 quotes a report from Help Net Security: The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has submitted a request to the Office of Management and Budget, asking for permission to collect travelers social media account names as they enter the country. The CBP, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, proposes that the request "Please enter information associated with your online presence -- Provider/Platform -- Social media identifier" be added to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) and to the CBP Form I-94W (Nonimmigrant Visa Waiver Arrival/Departure). "It will be an optional field to request social media identifiers to be used for vetting purposes, as well as applicant contact information," the CBP noted. "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 public and affected agencies are asked to comment on the request within 60 days of its publication. Commenters are asked to send their comments to this address.
That'll be interesting (Score:5, Informative)
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Just tell them your slashdot ID then. Mine is 3654617.
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Just tell them your slashdot ID then.
That's likely to be worse that having no social media!
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
But it would explain to the customs agent why you have no social life that would require social media.
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But it would explain to the customs agent why you have no social life that would require social media.
That's not one of the multiple choices they offer you.
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Yes Mr/Mrs Officer. Of course I have a social media life. My slashdot account name is "Anonymous Coward".
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Please step out of line, sir. I'm going to need you to put your hands where I can see them. Can someone bring me some more rubber gloves?
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Please step out of line, sir. I'm going to need you to put your hands where I can see them. Can someone bring me some more rubber gloves?
Are these grits in your pants sir??????
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Are these grits in your pants sir??????
No, I'm not pleased to see you, that actually is a beowulf cluster in my pocket.
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:4, Funny)
Are these grits in your pants sir??????
No, I'm not pleased to see you, that actually is a beowulf cluster in my pocket.
Sir, why would you even think it was okay to bring four dead woodchucks onto a plane?
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:4, Funny)
Just tell them your slashdot ID then. Mine is 3654617.
If I told them mine was 175943 they would accuse me of lying by claiming so a low ID.
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No they wouldn't.
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There are still many of us around that have low slashdot ID.
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
There are still many of us around that have low slashdot ID.
I doubt that. Any examples?
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85900 and still around. :-)
I guess I will be in for some serious questioning next time I go to the US...
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
If only I hadn't spent those first few months lurking without an account...
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
If only I hadn't spent those first few months lurking without an account...
Me too!
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:4, Insightful)
This new login thing is a fad.
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Hah! Look at us losers! We BARELY missed four digits! ;)
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I got accused of having a low ID once because its "only" six digits. It made me feel old. How do you guys feel?
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
There are no people on Slashdot with low UIDs. All that is left below the 10000 mark are bots that spend endlessly parsing posts for references for UIDs just so they can make some witty meta comment about themselves.
Prove you're human.
Re:That'll be interesting (Score:5, Funny)
I... dammit. They're onto us!
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Shit! The bots are becoming self-aware! The end times are nigh!
Re: That'll be interesting (Score:2)
Yo.
Re: That'll be interesting (Score:2)
How YOU doin'?
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So from now on it's rank, name, Slashdot-ID?
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3654617? Kids today...
JWSmythe ( 446288 )
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Or whenever they ask, use national characters making up words like "räksmörgås". It would be interesting to see them trying to type that.
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It would be nice if you didn't say things like that in polite company. There are standards, ya know...
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Oh come on. It's not like he said "BELGIUM"!!!
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Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Belgium at will to old laddies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred.
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After USA forced Germany to include biometric data (read fingerprints) into the passports, I vowed to never set foot in the USA, even though I have relatives in San Francisco. I refuse to visit a country that treats me like a criminal.
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Hmmm, travel to the USA anywhere else on the planet. Tough choice but I'll go with anywhere else on the planet. I've pretty much been up and down Asia, continental Europe, UK and the Middle East. The USA was on my todo list (just never got around to it, came close in 2010), looks like it's now off it.
My work's on about sending me to India for two weeks for some shit. It sounds like a real bad time, but still better than having to go to the US. I'm sure once you get in it's fine but the whole process just makes me want to run the fuck away.
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Easier to Travel To China (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easier to Travel To China (Score:5, Interesting)
China is still more effort to get a visa for than the US, for Aussies anyway. But the airports, customs, border control & security theatre in the US is worse.
I will definitely agree with you on the feeling safe part. China just feels safe.
Re: Easier to Travel To China (Score:2)
It was easier for me to visit USSR back in the 80ies (as a GDR citizen, though). The trip had to be preplanned, but no difficulties otherwise. There were many young GDR guys who backpacked through the soviet union illegally, entering with a transit visum, but the soviets were pretty forgiving when they caught these.
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There's quite a lot in China that's not in Beijing or Shanghai.
Re:Easier to Travel To China (Score:5, Insightful)
As a Brazilian, 100% agreed.
Chinese visa -> pay a little, send document and passport by mail, get the visa the same way. No explaining, just a 3 month period when I was planning to go.
American visa -> expensive visa. Fill forms on the Internet explaining my traveling plans (where, who's house, witch hotel), etc and book a date to take a photo and to do an interview. Had to travel to one of the cities with an embassy (1hr by plane), go to one of their photograph centers let them take a photo (for the FBI/NSA/DHS face recognition database, ie be treated like a criminal), then go to the embassy, get huge lines, do the whole security theater thing, do an interview, pay extra to get the visa by mail later.
Besides the safety aspect, I'm not scared of bringing electronics in/out of China, they won't mess with your luggage. To the US, the only safe option is to discard anything that gets out of your sigh (remember hdd firmware virus), so you are limited to carry on.
Re:Easier to Travel To China (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep. I was passing through China to Malaysia, but had an overnight stay. They let me get a day visa to visit the city by filling in a small form and going through the passport inspection line with it. No advance planning required.
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Hey that sounds familiar. I had to do the same once when I wanted to visit East Germany. However, they did not require an interview, but an invitation.
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Also the chances of getting shot at while taking in the views are next to zero in china compared to the USA.
Chances of getting shot in the US are similar to getting eaten by a shark in Australia. remote.
You should be much more worried about getting killed on the road, especially in 3rd world countries, including China.
Re: Easier to Travel To China (Score:5, Informative)
Annual number of gun deaths is us = ~12,000
That's truly awful, but I'm talking about tourists. And outside of minority inner-city gangs, the homicide rate in the US is not much worse than other developed countries. Gun violence is something that tourists should be aware of in places like Orlando or New Orleans, but the traffic and smog in China are bigger killers.
Take precautions, and enjoy your vacation.
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As a foreigner who lives outside of china and USA it is far easier to travel around China now than the USA.
Except for Tibet. Try to go there sometime. Unless things have changed Tibet is currently closed to foreign visitors although that doesn't mean it won't ever open up to them again. If you have a visa to come to the USA there aren't any states that are closed to you as a tourist.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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why do it? well I like to have open and honest discussions with friends as well as joke around and I want to do that without having to be concerned that someth
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they just want to amass as much of it as possible and feed it to 3 letter agencies
Bunch of morons at CBP (Score:5, Insightful)
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In fairness, there seem to be a lot of terrorists and other criminals who are not very intelligent.
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They are only interesting in catching the low hanging fruit, the idiots who post ISIS propaganda on their Facebook page before trying to enter the US. Throw in some students who post about how they are going to have a wild party and you have your quota for that month. Look, we made the border even worse than last month, see how vitally important we are to national security?!
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That's not so easy to do well. We are not talking criminal masterminds here. They are rejects from the plow that value their own lives at null, and who are we to argue about that.
On Fetlife I'm... (Score:3)
On Fetlife I'm...
On Literotica I'm...
On MyFreeCams I'm...
On Google+ I'm... (of course you aren't in my circle, but I do share publicly about once a week)
On Twitter you won't see activity ever since Google+ came on the scene.
On Youtube, oh wait, you didn't like the Fetlife stuff; you can't see the private stuff on Youtube anyway, been years since I posted a public video...
Makes me wonder if anyone's kink is learning others' kinks?
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But online at least you don't catch anything else either.
Oh boy (Score:2)
And when I say I don't have any social media accounts, how long will it take for me to get out of the "suspicious person detention cage"?
I have no facebook, no twitter, no instagram, no pinterest, no linkedin, no nothin'. I'm screwed.
Guess it's time to make a bunch of accounts and fill them with pictures of adorable cats and cute puppy dogs.
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Do what I did, create an account and make the only entry "This thing here exists because employers and other nosy assholes want to snoop into my life and I was afraid someone could create an account with my name, fill it with bullshit and some idiot could actually think it's me. No, there aren't going to be any updates. And fuck you for looking at this in the first place!"
(text slightly altered for obvious reasons, doxing should at least take a little effort...)
Need to know? (Score:2)
no one but a slave would answer that question.
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Or someone intimidated by the guy with the gun. Or somebody about to miss a connecting flight. Or somebody who wants to get back in line so he can be back with his kids before the TSA gropes the kids as they have been known to do. Or ...
The answer is not to be defiant and get put in a cage for refusing to act as if you are already in a cage - the answer is to stop these fuckers from abusing their overwhelming power in the first place. You chose to act like a
Re:Need to know? (Score:5, Insightful)
The American Security Theater Administration (or whatever their real name is) already asks people going into the US idiotic questions - I've been asked for the address of my hotel, address and phone numbers of my relative in the US (why?), the address of the university I finished 20 years ago (why, you want to send them mail?), and a lot of other crap. Clearly, I could invent random responses and the interviewer would not know any better. I could also claim I didn't have or didn't know an answer. But do you know anybody who, after spending thousands of dollars on a vacation, would risk it all just to spite the security interviewer? So everybody (except the actual terrorists, of course) just tells these guys the truth. And hates the American culture just a little bit more :-(
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I've been asked for the address of my hotel, address and phone numbers of my relative in the US (why?), the address of the university I finished 20 years ago (why, you want to send them mail?), and a lot of other crap...
*I* get asked this kind of shit when entering, and I'm coming in on a US passport bearing a very Anglo-Saxon name and face (very obviously mine), and showing that I was born there. I get hassled less when I visit China. WTF?
Are you fucking kidding me?! (Score:2)
What the fuck?!!!!
When does the insanity end? (Score:4, Funny)
I mean, just pull us all into the back room and start the waterboarding already.
*Sigh* (Score:5, Interesting)
They don't learn, do they? L'il Bobby Tables & friends it is then. They're probably running some version of Oracle on the backend, so keep that in mind while you are registering your new completely legitimate social media account names expressly for this use.
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Shhh, don't spoil my fun, my flight's tomorrow.
Anonymous Coward (Score:2, Funny)
My online presence is Anonymous Coward. You will notice from my history, that I have nothing to hide. In fact, you may not even see my posts, unless you click load all comments 1000 times.
Major problem! (Score:2)
If you don't have one, they won't believe you and you are suspicious...?
So - where is the personal freedom the US-folks are so proud of?
I think this goes along religious freedom - do you have to tell anyone what "religion", you belong to or none if you are agnostic?
Do you have to tell anyone what political party or flavor you belong to, find good?
On the same level believe in what's happening in Soc. Media or the purpose of it being beneficial or not.
- what books you read, like, find good or despise..
Mind co
Same Same Thailand (Score:5, Interesting)
Thai Immigration is beginning to request the same information of foreigners entering or staying in the country. Thailand is under military junta at the moment.
I am living in Thailand on a Non - Immigrant retirement visa and had thought I might leave, in part, due to this invasion of privacy. But I see the US junta has the same aspirations.
Why would you not give your name? (Score:3, Interesting)
If you care little enough about privacy to be on "social media" why would you care?
Please make up your mind (Score:2)
Do you want to know mine or the ones I use? When you're in IT security, you get so many credentials to use...
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I see Facebook and other social media accounts tripling as folks create dummy accounts....
And what's next? (Score:5, Insightful)
And in the next iteration, account names will be mandatory, together with the passwords for them (verified on the spot by your friendly customs people) and the PINs for your banking cards?
The PSA (Paranoid States of America) still shit their pants because of one terrorist incident a decade ago, while local yokels with guns (including the police) kill ten times that much people per year.
No US travel then for me (Score:3)
I like Wikileaks on Facebook, they'll never let me in.
They already analyze your social media stuff. (Score:3)
My account name? (Score:2)
It's "Commander Taco".
Now who is laughing? (Score:5, Insightful)
No problem officer.... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm known as "EatShitTSA" on most social networks....
in addition to? (Score:2)
US Customs and Border Protection (Score:2)
Modern Day Shakedown.
Even as a US Citizen it is fucking absurd. I had one flight into Boston that took longer to get through immigration that flight itself - AS A US CITIZEN!
My wife never wants to come back. I don't blame her. It's a straight up humiliating process.
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Re:TL;DR (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't think the people have changed that much and, very often, they are lovely. But the government etc. seems to have.
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I don't see this flying very far, as it has privacy implications for those that have no intention of international travel and cannot be offered the opportunity to opt out. I see this as a governmental power play to connect real people to public dissensions on facebook whether the intent is for good or ill.
This will more than likely be used by political parties to place opposing factions under duress like the people attacking trump supporters.
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That's what I thought about the TSA ball squeezing. Now I would say all bets are off.
There was a comedy anime where the building destroying "heroes" had a catchphrase "anything can be done in the name of justice!". That's increasingly the line being taken in a slide towards authoritarianism.
Papers please.
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it has privacy implications for those that have no intention of international travel and cannot be offered the opportunity to opt out.
Identifying the username of a person has a knock-on effect on everyone on the planet? This isn't login information. It's just the username of the one person. How is that an issue? You friend some terrorists, and you think that if they all give their username, it'll get you on a list?
Re: "optional" as long as you fill it out... (Score:2)
Anything can happen is Hillary's economic plan. 1+1=3 with anything can happen Hillary.
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This is slashdot, where 1+1=10.
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> You need a new tag line in this hottest year ever.
It's amazing to watch the complete scientific ignorance from the group that pats themselves on the back for being on the side of science.
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Goatse.cx - social media for those with nothing to hide
Then do something (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a request from a bureaucrat for permission. There's 60 days for the public to weigh in. If you don't like it, instead of bitching on /., call your congressman/submit an opinion through the proper channels.
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And don't you think for a second that I'm going to decrypt that one here in this office.
You might, if I hit you with a $5 wrench hard enough...
Or perhaps your wife and kids...
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No friends? Then you will be questioned for being anti-social personality.
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Want some fun? They can treat all the citizens inside like shit for 100 miles within the border.
Sadly my fellow americans are so stupid to tolerate the fake security theater over their freedom, that they actually seem to LIKE it.
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If they already know, then they know if you are lying and use that to treat you like shit even though you haven't actually done anything.
The terrorists won and have turned democracy and freedom into a disgusting fascist police state...
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YET