We knew this was coming, but now the clock is running.
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@arrakeen_urbanite @briankrebs wouldn’t that help these people in validating their own imposed restrictions?
“See! They thought it such a good idea they can’t wait to follow our lead, copying what we did first.”
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@arrakeen_urbanite @briankrebs making it that much harder for people to flee from the country
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@farbel @briankrebs Love this!
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We knew this was coming, but now the clock is running. From Privacy International:
"Yesterday the Trump Administration announced a proposed change in policy for travellers to the U.S. It applies to the powers of data collection by the Customs and Border Police (CBP)."
"If the proposed changes are adopted after the 60-day consultation, then millions of travellers to the U.S. will be forced to use a U.S. government mobile phone app, submit their social media from the last five years and email addresses used in the last ten years, including of family members. They’re also proposing the collection of DNA."
PI linked to and summarized a Federal Register entry describing the proposed requirements:
-All visitors must submit ‘their social media from the last 5 years’
-ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) applications will include ‘high value data fields’, ‘when feasible’
‘telephone numbers used in the last five years’
-‘email addresses used in the last ten years’
-‘family number telephone numbers (sic) used in the last five years’
-biometrics – face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
-business telephone numbers used in the last five years
-business email addresses used in the last ten years.The Federal Register entry says comments are encouraged and
must be submitted (no later than February 9, 2026) to be assured of consideration.Federal Register entry: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-12-10/pdf/2025-22461.pdf
@briankrebs I don't at all understand that Federal Register link. Is it the wrong link? Or is it deliberately opaque?
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We knew this was coming, but now the clock is running. From Privacy International:
"Yesterday the Trump Administration announced a proposed change in policy for travellers to the U.S. It applies to the powers of data collection by the Customs and Border Police (CBP)."
"If the proposed changes are adopted after the 60-day consultation, then millions of travellers to the U.S. will be forced to use a U.S. government mobile phone app, submit their social media from the last five years and email addresses used in the last ten years, including of family members. They’re also proposing the collection of DNA."
PI linked to and summarized a Federal Register entry describing the proposed requirements:
-All visitors must submit ‘their social media from the last 5 years’
-ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) applications will include ‘high value data fields’, ‘when feasible’
‘telephone numbers used in the last five years’
-‘email addresses used in the last ten years’
-‘family number telephone numbers (sic) used in the last five years’
-biometrics – face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
-business telephone numbers used in the last five years
-business email addresses used in the last ten years.The Federal Register entry says comments are encouraged and
must be submitted (no later than February 9, 2026) to be assured of consideration.Federal Register entry: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-12-10/pdf/2025-22461.pdf
@briankrebs I'm sure Disney and Vegas CEOs will be utterly thrilled.
FWIW (Brit here) I decided not to travel to the US while the admin is in place immediately it won - The roadmap for Project 2025 was perfectly clear a year before that.
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the "email addresses used in the last ten years" is ludicrous. I use catch-all email-addresses and hand out concocted addresses liberally. They expect me to remember every "joesblog@mydomain.example.com" address ever used?
And every family-member's phone-number used? I barely remember my wife's phone-number let alone relatives I sporadically call via the phone.
(I mean, the rest is pretty over-the-top too, so the whole "avoid the US" is good advice regardless, but some elements are nigh-impossible)
@gumnos @briankrebs does “email addresses used in the last ten years” include work / side gig?
As an email administrator for multiple companies, this could literally be thousands of email addresses.
I also suspect that lawyers for said companies would object to me listing things.
There’s also the spam trap domains that I run that have wildcard email addresses.
I could probably dump multiple megabytes -> gigabytes into their systems.
Not that I would willingly give them shit.
This is all about privacy invasion and social graph building for a BAD reason.
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Looks like #CBP / #ICE is out in Italy doing a little advance work:
"US to send ICE agents to Winter Olympics, prompting Italian anger"
"The governor of Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, sought to calm the situation, suggesting that ICE agents would be deployed in Italy to protect US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.Olympics, prompting Italian anger"
Which should be the work of the US Secret Service, last time I heard...
@FinchHaven @briankrebs perhaps they are afraid that the secret service might just shoot them in the back at this point?
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@briankrebs No way I could comply as I use wildcard email addressed (and have hundreds of domains) meaning I literally use a different email address on every form and web site and have no way to know them all. I have also had allocated to me well over a million phone numbers (as part of a junk call thing) - I could probably get a list of those and see if I can blow up the ESTA web site perhaps. And I have no right to give other people's numbers to the US either - does anyone, legally?
@revk @briankrebs they want to keep anyone this tech savvy out of the country (or disappear them if they do come). Only conclusion I can make from this.
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How does one even "submit social media from the last 5 years"?
@henrik @briankrebs just give your username, and let big tech hand over the rest of it
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@CrankyOtter
Most likely, when conforted about this point, they will say that the 4th can only be applied to USA citizens.
Then suddently they will forget how to read international treaties about tourists/business trips/scholarships and such...@mistheart @CrankyOtter @briankrebs but they can already just claim you aren’t a US citizen and then you get no due process anyway, so what’s the difference?
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@mistheart @CrankyOtter @briankrebs but they can already just claim you aren’t a US citizen and then you get no due process anyway, so what’s the difference?
@Frantasaur
Honestly? I think it might be a wedge.All authoritatian governents wants control over citizens and monitor them.
This could be a first step to implement this kind of controls, first to a 'minor group' then to everyone. The window of possibilities shift a little bit with every action of this kind.Also, previously there were internacional arrangements between countries regarding visitors and such; but they can blurt any half cooked justification and extend that control to non-american people "in a legal-y way", instead of fliping the table as they do lately.
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@lumiworx @kimlockhartga @briankrebs
It's Palantir and other AI tech bros who are data hungry for more data-inaccessible correlations
Intelligence agencies hope for intel.
Politicians hope for leverage against any and all
The US wants to chose their politicians in any nation by manufacturing consent with AI and micromanagement.
This is neither Trump nor Miller ... ok somewhat MIller
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -
@farbel @briankrebs Love this!
@farbel @briankrebs My approach was a little more candy coated...
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@Frantasaur
Honestly? I think it might be a wedge.All authoritatian governents wants control over citizens and monitor them.
This could be a first step to implement this kind of controls, first to a 'minor group' then to everyone. The window of possibilities shift a little bit with every action of this kind.Also, previously there were internacional arrangements between countries regarding visitors and such; but they can blurt any half cooked justification and extend that control to non-american people "in a legal-y way", instead of fliping the table as they do lately.
@mistheart @CrankyOtter @briankrebs recently I read a post saying that it makes more sense to read the motivations for the actions of Trump’s people as an abusive partner, rather that fascism. In that context it’s more like an analog of isolating the victim from their support network (friends, family).
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@briankrebs hold on, just trying to remember that work phone number from 8 years ago I did all my terrorist planning texts from.
They're so clever to wring it out of me like this. I nearly got away with it.
@Iwillyeah @briankrebs reminds me of the troubles era “landing forms” that the British used to make people coming from Northern Ireland fill in before arriving in another part of the UK (yes, there was no border control, it was an internal flight). Questions like the “purpose of your visit”, like they were actually going to catch someone out there who would write “terrorist bombing campaign” by mistake
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@Em0nM4stodon @briankrebs I'm honestly sad that I will most likely never be able to visit New York City, which is the main place I would have loved to visit there.
@ainmosni @briankrebs Same here sigh
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@Stevenheywood @briankrebs Looks like even Nige has cooled off a bit lately - after being snubbed maybe.
@annehargreaves @Stevenheywood @briankrebs no, he’s keeping quiet while the backlash against the US is ongoing (a bit like Wilders here in the Netherlands), but he’s still “at it” and very connected with what is going on there.
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@masek The thing is, they know that people will omit information. This is what gives them the upper hand. So the only way to win this game is not to play...
@hyperbolix @masek yeh, basically they can always find a reason you “lied”. Although they seem to not need this right now even for US citizens.
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@mistheart @CrankyOtter @briankrebs recently I read a post saying that it makes more sense to read the motivations for the actions of Trump’s people as an abusive partner, rather that fascism. In that context it’s more like an analog of isolating the victim from their support network (friends, family).
@Frantasaur @mistheart @briankrebs They’re both. The abuse is how they heighten the fear while they slide in the fascism.
The only way out of the US is via Mexico, Canada, or over endless water.
ICE is set up for a kettleing maneuver at the Canadian border, with work camps. in the Dakotas being built.
Fewer international travelers to the US means fewer planes coming AND FEWER LEAVING the US. No visa? Can’t get out.
I don’t exactly know the goal but I see the mechanism.
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@Iwillyeah @briankrebs reminds me of the troubles era “landing forms” that the British used to make people coming from Northern Ireland fill in before arriving in another part of the UK (yes, there was no border control, it was an internal flight). Questions like the “purpose of your visit”, like they were actually going to catch someone out there who would write “terrorist bombing campaign” by mistake
@briankrebs @Frantasaur it's a very English thing to do, for the sake of appearances.
