US demands social media details from visa applicants

Re:US demands social media details from visa applicants by someguydave on Monday June 03, 2019 @12:41AM (#20080459)

Thinking about it in network security terms, why shouldn't prospective new immigrants and/or visitors face higher scrutiny? It seems to me that they represent a higher threat to US citizens living in the US than random foreigners outside US borders, because of their "insider" status. Also, once they are present inside the US, they can potentially avail themselves of rights given to US persons. Therefore, such privileges ought to be given selectively.

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Re:US demands social media details from visa applicants by Broken_Hippo on Monday June 03, 2019 @03:20AM (#20081094)

These aren't questions for prospective new immigrants. These are for visa holders. There are a good number of folks that must get a visa for a vacation, for example. These are questions for random foreigners!

In general, immigrants are less of a threat than a citizen, by the way.

This isn't even actual scrutiny either. These are stupid questions. If someone answers yes to being a terrorist, for example, congrats. You've barred someone stupid from entering the country. This is the same tactic used by "nigerian" scammers.

I'll add that some of these are completely outside of a person's control: Things your parents did. I can only imagine having a parent involved in human smuggling and then being barred from travel because of it.

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Re:US demands social media details from visa applicants by gambiting on Monday June 03, 2019 @04:20AM (#20081334)

>>This isn't even actual scrutiny either. These are stupid questions. If someone answers yes to being a terrorist, for example, congrats. You've barred someone stupid from entering the country. This is the same tactic used by "nigerian" scammers.

Weeeeeell. No, not entirely. If you think "terrorist" you probably think ISIS and Al-Queda. But someone could have been a member of the IRA 30 years ago, and should still technically answer "yes" to this question. In theory, that shouldn't bar them from entry(given that everything else is ok). But lying on this form and saying they have never been a member of a terrorist organisation would ban them for life from visiting US if they were ever found out. So this question is not as stupid as it seems.

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Re:US demands social media details from visa applicants by bouncycastle on Monday June 03, 2019 @12:50AM (#20080488)

Most of these questions are just rhetorical. Of course nobody would answer "yes". Annoying to those that haven't done anything wrong.

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