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'Extreme Vetting' Would Require Visitors To US To Share Contacts, Passwords (theguardian.com)
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration is considering whether or not to deploy "extreme vetting" practices at airports around the world, which could force tourists from Britain and other countries visiting the U.S. to reveal their mobile phone contacts, social media passwords and financial data. "Travelers who want to enter the U.S. could also face questioning over their ideology, as Washington moves away from a default position of allowing people in to a more skeptical approach to visitors," reports The Guardian. From the report: Trump made the "extreme vetting" of foreign nationals to combat terrorism a major theme of his presidential election campaign. But his executive order imposing a travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries has twice been blocked in court. Media reports suggest it has already hurt the tourism industry. The changes might include visitors from the 38 countries -- the UK, France, Australia and Japan among them -- that participate in the visa waiver program, which requires adherence to strict U.S. standards in data sharing, passport control and other factors, one senior official told the Journal. This could require people to hand over their phones so officials can study their stored contacts and possibly other information. The aim is to "figure out who you are communicating with," a senior Department of Homeland Security official was quoted as saying. "What you can get on the average person's phone can be invaluable." A second change would ask applicants for their social media handles and passwords, so that officials could see information posted privately in addition to public posts, the Journal said. The Journal report said the DHS official working on the review said questions under consideration included whether visa applicants believe in so-called honor killings, how they view the treatment of women in society, whether they value the "sanctity of human life" and who they view as a legitimate target in a military operation.
The USA has lost its damn mind.
No in the past the USA would just refuse to extradite people to face terrorist charges to European countries. I know for certain this applied to both the UK and France, and included terrorists who where Muslim.
Heck the USA would even allow terrorist organizations to fund raise in the USA!!! When it comes to terrorists the USA can just fuck right off.
Far more people have died in the UK from terrorists that the USA harboured and allowed to fund raise than have from any Islamist's terrorists, but don't let facts get in the way of your bigoted viewpoint.
More and more of my (Canadian) friends and family have made the decision to cancel discretionary trips to and through the USA in recent months.
Most people I know who are are staying away aren't doing it because of Trump's EOs or new rules that are coming. The majority are caucasian Canadian citizens, so they'd breeze right in anyway.
It's more that many Canadians that I've talked to feel that discretionary travel to the US is tacit support for Trump and his Republicans. We realize it's a drop in the ocean, but it's the only tool we have.
My wife and her friends recently cancelled a 'girl's weekend' in Seattle. I have a cousin who recently made the decision to go to Cuba in May instead of the Hawaii trip she had planned. Other friends who cancelled a Disney trip. Still others who cancelled San Diego and went to Mexico.
I also know of several people here in Vancouver who booked trips to points south and east and specifically avoided (cheaper) US carriers so they could avoid transiting the USA. They instead transited YYZ, YUL and MEX.
None of these people are radical eco-hippie-lefties. Just average Canadians who have made the decision not the travel to or through the USA.
I know, I know, anecdotal, we don't need you socialist commie Canadians anyway, Trump rules, America's great, don't let the door hit us on the way out, blah blah blah, but nevertheless that's tens of thousands of dollars deflected away from the USA right there in my little sphere, within the last month or two.
Too late, tourists have already been put off.
You will soon see its become really bad when the number of flights to/from the USA each day start falling.
Our family is unlikely to visit the USA ever again
Work encourages us to go to conferences outside the USA
Flights to UK/Europe are booked via HongKong, Singapore, etc etc etc in preference to going via the USA
If you must go via the USA, work laptops/phones can not be taken with you
USA has just become too hard, too much risk.
Not quite. Yes, what happened under the Obama administration involved CBP and social media, but it was significantly different.
Last July the Obama administration proposed a voluntary disclosure of social media profile information for travelers seeking a visa waiver through the ESTA system (Electronic System for Travel Authorization). It did not include password or contact information, but was controversial nonetheless. It sent into effect in December.[
The Trump administration is proposing significant changes to that program, requiring more information (passwords and contacts) and making it compulsory.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Before the West imported large numbers of Muslims, we did not have . . . somewhere between 6 and 12% of the terrorism we get in the West today.
I fixed that so the viewers at home could see the truth rather than a complete fabrication with no basis in reality. But by all means, don't let facts and data get in the way of a good old fashioned islamophobic blame-the-brown-people polemic.
Nothing posted to
We (my family) won't be back.
You hear about businesses talking about "transactional friction", i.e. the difficulties in doing a transaction, the lower it is the more it gets used.
Well the "friction" for visiting the USA is simply too high, the risks for tourists too high, the risk of loosing phones and laptop too high. Where as the friction for other countries is much lower.
Our next "big trip" (they usually are 4-8 weeks) will be into Asia in a couple of years, then back to Europe (via Asia) a few years after that, then a cruise around Australia. The USA has been removed from consideration, its too hard.
... should rule the day.
All countries should respond in kind to any vetting and any banning by the USA.
I'm an American and not particularly proud of it.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Well when Dept of Homeland Security Secretary says something, it's kind of unfair to claim a paper is making something up.
https://homeland.house.gov/hea...
http://www.npr.org/templates/t...
But hey, I get it, media bashing, it's the new cool.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.