Slashdot Mirror
Europe is Using Smartphone Data as a Weapon To Deport Refugees (wired.co.uk)
Governments are using migrants' smartphones to deport them. From a report: Across the continent, migrants are being confronted by a booming mobile forensics industry that specialises in extracting a smartphone's messages, location history, and even WhatsApp data. That information can potentially be turned against the phone owners themselves. In 2017 both Germany and Denmark expanded laws that enabled immigration officials to extract data from asylum seekers' phones. Similar legislation has been proposed in Belgium and Austria, while the UK and Norway have been searching asylum seekers' devices for years.
Following right-wing gains across the EU, beleaguered governments are scrambling to bring immigration numbers down. Tackling fraudulent asylum applications seems like an easy way to do that. As European leaders met in Brussels last week to thrash out a new, tougher framework to manage migration -- which nevertheless seems insufficient to placate Angela Merkel's critics in Germany -- immigration agencies across Europe are showing new enthusiasm for laws and software that enable phone data to be used in deportation cases. Admittedly, some refugees do lie on their asylum applications.
Following right-wing gains across the EU, beleaguered governments are scrambling to bring immigration numbers down. Tackling fraudulent asylum applications seems like an easy way to do that. As European leaders met in Brussels last week to thrash out a new, tougher framework to manage migration -- which nevertheless seems insufficient to placate Angela Merkel's critics in Germany -- immigration agencies across Europe are showing new enthusiasm for laws and software that enable phone data to be used in deportation cases. Admittedly, some refugees do lie on their asylum applications.
" Admittedly, some refugees do lie on their asylum applications."
Who writes this stuff? There is a difference between an asylum seeker and an immigrant and a migrant and an illegal immigrant. To conflate it all is disingenuous.
Refugees aren't being deported (unless they have been extraordinarily naughty). You get deported (maybe, sometimes, if officials can be bothered or if you drag out your appeal for so long that they give up, and if you do not make too much of a scene) when your asylum claim is rejected. And plenty of rejected applicants are not deported, they just hang around. Hoping for another mass pardon of illegal immigrants, perhaps.
Separating actual refugees from immigrants with other motivations is vitally important, to make sure we can financially, politically and socially afford to take in as many actual refugees as needed. It's not unreasonable to ask applicants to provide proof to support their claim, and that includes submitting mobile phone data. As long as it is treated as the highly sensitive data that it is, with only relevant portions being retained and only for as long as necessary.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Found the political bullshitter with an agenda!
Non-citizens can apparently vote
Not really. They cannot vote in federal elections at all per 18 USC 611. (I'd link it at uscode.house.gov, but Slashdot apparently doesn't like the URL. I trust you can find it.)
Since you mentioned CA in particular, I'll note that they can't vote there at all. Only US citizens can vote in CA, according the California Secretary of State.
As far as I know, every state requires US citizenship in order to vote. Certainly everywhere I've lived.
It's OK if you're afraid of immigrants, but it's not OK to lie about how things work in the real world.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
In Australia, voting is compulsory for citizens aged 18+, otherwise eligible prisoners serving a full-time term of less than 3 years can still vote in federal elections (it's a little unclear on whether you MUST vote, like those on the outside). Serving more than 3 years
you are ineligible. Rules for state and local level elections vary.
https://www.aec.gov.au/Enrolling_to_vote/Special_Category/Prisoners.htm
". Assuming I agree with that premise I still see a problem. These people in prison had to know the drugs they possessed were illegal, and by possessing them they run the risk of imprisonment if caught. Perhaps they should have considered voting for people to legalize these drugs BEFORE they went about using or dealing them. If they broke the law as a means of civil disobedience "
Wow, maybe you should change your signature if you're going to suck fascist cock like that. The laws regarding drugs are abusive to the people. You're not free, you're sitting and licking like a good dog should.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"