Summarised by Centrist
The United States is considering major changes to its visa-waiver entry rules, proposing that visitors from New Zealand and dozens of other partner countries hand over up to five years of social media history before travelling.
The plan, published in the Federal Register, would make social-media disclosure a mandatory part of the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) process and greatly expand the amount of personal information collected from millions of ordinary tourists and business travellers.
Under the proposal, applicants would be required to submit their social-media accounts from the past five years, phone numbers from the past five years, and email addresses used over the past decade.
They would also need to provide IP addresses, metadata from electronically submitted photos, and an expanded set of biometric details, including facial, fingerprint, DNA and iris data.
The rules would further require family information such as names, phone numbers, dates and places of birth, and residence history. The proposal is now open for a 60-day public comment period.
The changes would also remove the option of applying through the ESTA government website. Instead, all applicants would be required to use the ETSA mobile app, which US Customs and Border Protection expects more than 14 million people a year will rely on the ESTA mobile app once the system changes.
Similar data-collection rules already apply to immigrant and non-immigrant visa categories.
