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Washington (CNN) - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to start asking for social media information on immigration and travel abroad applications to the US, an expansion of the collection of data that is already taking place.
Some foreign travelers to the US, as well as applicants for immigration benefits, will be asked to list their social media accounts and usernames for the past five years, according to a notice in the Federal Register. The information will be used to determine if an individual "represents a risk to law enforcement or United States national security."
The social media platforms that DHS will ask about include Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Ask.fm, Weibo, Myspace, YouTube and LinkedIn. The agency says it will not collect passwords and will review only publicly available information.
The change comes amid the fury by a Harvard student, Ismail Ajjawi, who was denied entry to the U.S. based on information discovered during a U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection. UU.
According to The Harvard Crimson , Ajjawi alleged that he was told that there were "political views that oppose the United States" expressed by people he follows on social media. After being questioned, Crimson said , his visa was revoked and sent back to Lebanon. Since then he has been allowed to enter the United States and attend school.
The State Department is already requesting information from the social networks of most US visa applicants. UU.
In June, the State Department said the forms for immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applicants had been updated "to request additional information, including social media identifiers."
The DHS social media collection is based on a 2017 executive order that requires the implementation of research standards and information gathering related to entering the US. and immigration benefits.
The updated data collection will affect nine US Citizenship and Immigration Services programs. For immigration benefits, such as naturalization and asylum applications, as well as three Customs and Border Protection forms: for visa exemptions, visa updates and the Electronic System for Travel Authorization document.
This is the first time that Citizenship and Immigration Services require social media accounts and management of these applications, according to a DHS official. It is not clear if Customs and Border Protection collected this data in the past.
The proposed changes are expected to begin in 2020, the official added.
Last week, the Citizenship and Immigration Services, which manage immigration legal benefits, updated their privacy policy, which said in part that it would allow the agency to use false social network accounts or identities to identify threats and detect fraud in the immigration system
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These two developments are "a reflection of the extent to which US government agencies. they have really expanded the use of social media surveillance, ”said Hugh Handeyside, lead attorney for the National Security Project of the United States Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“There are some serious problems. The potential to misunderstand the speech online is through the clouds, ”said Handeyside.
He also told CNN that "it will inevitably impede freedom of expression," because people censor themselves when they know the government is observing, adding that "there is no way for DHS to do this without also reviewing the online speech of American citizens. "
Earlier this year, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in federal court in search of records related to the monitoring of social networks by the Government: the policies that govern the process and the tools used to do so.
The Secretary of National Security of the Obama administration, Jeh Johnson, previously delegated authority to the Citizenship and Immigration Services to carry out law enforcement activities, including the use of false accounts to access public information on social networks, provided they are carried out by “duly trained and authorized officers”, and that comply with the obligations of privacy and civil rights.
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The immigration agency may use false identities only to review social media accounts available to the public and must have the approval of the supervisor.
Currently, the department uses social media information to examine applicants, but says it is laborious to connect social media accounts with applicants. The collection of usernames, says DHS, will reduce the time needed to validate social media accounts.
Privacy advocates have argued that social media collection has limited value and can create a situation conducive to discrimination.
"There is no evidence at all that monitoring social networks is useful for identifying security threats," said Faiza Patel, co-director of the Brennan Center for the Justice, Freedom and National Security Program.
Patel also noted that "social networks are intrinsically very difficult to interpret," adding that it depends a lot on the context and often includes jargon, cultural differences and languages other than English.
According to a report by the Brennan Center, “Social Network Monitoring,” a 2016 report prepared by DHS for the incoming administration found that “the information in the accounts did not give clear and articulable links to national security concerns, including for those applicants who were found to represent a potential threat to national security based on other security detection results. ”
When asked about the 2016 report, the DHS official told CNN that "the proposed collection of social media identifiers will make the review of social media information available to the public more efficient."
Customs and Border Protection withholds information about two of your requests, which will require information from social networks, for three years in an active database and 12 years in an archived database, according to the DHS official.
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The information in the Electronic Customs Visa and Border Protection Update System, an automated system to determine eligibility to travel to the United States with a 10-year visitor visa, will be archived for 12 years.
The retained data linked to the law enforcement records will remain “accessible during the life of the law enforcement activities,” said the official.
Eli Watkins, Rob Frehse and Evan Simko-Bednarski of CNN contributed to this story.
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