DHS is collecting information on the social media history of immigrants. It’s hard to get worked up about extra security, particularly when it’s related to publicly available information. And that includes US citizens who communicate with the immigrants. The comments on this article raise some interesting points.
New rules give the DHS permission to collect “social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and search results” as part of people’s immigration file. The Federal Register has the details, which seems to also include US citizens that communicate with immigrants.
This is part of the general trend to scrutinize people coming into the US more, but it’s hard to get too worked up about the DHS accessing publicly available information. More disturbing is the trend of occasionally asking for social media passwords at the border. Read more here.