Border security

US Department of Homeland Security silently starts collecting social network handles of visitors


U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has quietly started collecting information of social networking accounts of visitors to the United States, according to a report in Politico. The information is being used by the DHS to better identify possibilities of nefarious activity by what the DHS calls visiting “aliens”.

The DHS proposed the changes back in July, and travelers have started getting the new forms with fields for filling in details of their social networks. The measure is meant to meet the requirements of the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. The act was a response to calls from the American public that visitors were not being screened thoroughly enough, in the wake of the San Bernardino shootings.