The administration of US President Donald Trump plans to order visa-exempt foreign tourists to disclose their social media histories from the last five years before entering the country, according to an official notice.
The proposal laid out in a notice published on Tuesday in the Federal Register would apply to visitors from 42 countries, including Britain, France, Australia and Japan, who do not need a visa to enter the United States.
Currently, those travellers only need to apply for a waiver known as the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which still requires them to provide certain personal details.
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Under the proposed new rules, the collection of social media data would become a “mandatory” part of ESTA applications.
Applicants would need to provide their social media histories from the last five years, according to the notice.
They would also have to submit other “high-value data fields” including phone numbers from the last five years, email addresses from the past decade, personal details of family members and biometric information.