Handle it over: U.S. wants to collect social media info from some travellers

They know where you live, how old you are, and if theygettheir way, border agentsmight even find outyour Twitter handle.

TheU.S. Department of Homeland Securityhas put in a proposal to collect social media details fromsome non-immigrant visitors coming intothe country.

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If approved, the offering of social media datawould be voluntaryand added as a question to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) used to see if a traveller from aVisa Waiver Program country is ableto travel to the U.S. without a visa as well as on theI-94W. That's used at the land border in lieu of an ESTA for Visa Waiver Program travellers coming to the U.S.

Canadian citizens would be exempt as theydo notneed an ESTA or anI-94W to enter the U.S. However, it would apply to other types of residents, such as those hailing fromcountries that are part of the U.S.'s Visa Waiver Program but live in Canada. Those countries include France, Australia and Japan, among others.

The security department said the social media info would be used "for vetting purposes, as well as applicant contact information."

"Collecting social media data will enhance the existing investigative process and provide DHS greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections by providing an additional tool set which analysts and investigators may use to better analyze and investigate the case," their proposal reads.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) part of the DHS told CBC News that visitors would be able to provide up to 10 social media names and handles, from their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, among others.

A CBP spokesperson said thatDHS wouldonly have access to information that's publicly available on these accounts and that applicants wouldn't be punishedif theychosenot to provide this information.

They did not sayhow they would verify the accounts given.

More transparent?

Though the proposal saidproviding the social mediainfo would be optional, some still have privacy concerns.

Christopher Parsons, a research associate at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, has issues with how the U.S. border authoritycould use the social media information.

"It can be very challenging in 140 characters to provide a full context of a joke or an association or something of that nature so it could lead to people being concerned," he told CBC News, pointing to past examples of joke tweetsabout securitythat went awry.

"Is what they said going to be used against them even though it was perfectly innocuous?"

But he said the fact that the DHS is asking for this information shouldn't come as a surprise because it'ssomething bordersecurity is already tracking he said this just makes it more transparent.

The U.S. has supposedly heightened its monitoring of social media amongst visa applicants in the wake of the San Bernardino shootings last December.

"This at least makes it much more evident I think to people who are coming in that this is an actual area of surveillance whereas previously perhaps people might have been a bit more surprised."

Parsons said the information could also be used for an alert system, to check in andmake suretravellersare OK if an emergency or crisis happens while they are visiting.

Canada 'not considering'

The same measures the U.S. is proposing won't be coming to Canada anytime soon.

Lindsay Wemp, a spokeswoman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said they are"not considering asking travellers to provide their social media account names when travelling temporarily to Canada."

The U.S. is soliciting public comment on its proposal until Aug.22, after which it will be furtherconsidered.