Deji from Access Now writes, “You remember that spooky story about the U.S. screening everyone’s social media ‘presence’ at the border? Well, now there’s a way to tell the government exactly what you think about it.”
Boing Boing readers may remember that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is floating a plan to collect the social media accounts of the nearly 100 million people who enter the country every year. They won’t tell us what they’re going to do with the information. They won’t say if they’re going to share the data with the NSA and FBI. They won’t say whether what you post online could single you out for invasive screening. But they do say the program will cost $300,000,000.00.
We need to shut this down before it gets started.
My organization, Access Now, has created a survey to collect opinions about this program, and we’re going to deliver the responses directly to the agency before the deadline on August 22, 2016. Here are some of the questions, and a link to full questionnaire:
Should the U.S. government scan ALL your social media posts when you enter the country? Full survey
If U.S.customs screens social media, would you think twice about what you post? Full survey
Should the U.S. government be able scan your username through other databases to connect it to other information the government holds on you, like your tax information or military records?
U.S. CUSTOMS WANTS YOUR ONLINE ACCOUNTS
[Access Now]
(Image: , Bobby Hidy, CC-BY-SA)