The process of getting refugee status, a green card, and citizenship will become way more intrusive.
The Department of Homeland Security plans to expand its social media profile collection program from US visa applicants to also include data from immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees.
The DHS published a notice on the federal registry describing its future data collection practice this week.
The agency plans to ask immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees to provide usernames — without passwords — for 19 social networking sites:
Ask.fm (Q&A site)
Douban (China-based social network)
Facebook (social network)
Flickr (image hosting portal)
Instagram (image sharing social network)
LinkedIn (job seeking portal)
MySpace (social network)
Pinterest (image saving/categorization service)
QZone (QQ) (China-based social network, IM app)
Reddit (discussion board)
Sina Weibo (China-based microblogging service)
Tencent Weibo (China-based microblogging service)
Tumblr (blogging platform)
Twitter (microblogging service)
Twoo (Belgium-based social network)
Vine (video sharing site)
VKontakte (VK) (Russia-based social network)
Youke (China-based video sharing portal)
YouTube (video sharing portal)
These are the same social media profiles that the DHS had been collecting through the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency from US visa applications — people who applied for entry in the US from a country where a visa card is required.
The DHS has been collecting social media profile information from visa applicants since December 2016. Initially, the social media profile fields were optional, but the DHS made themobligatory for all visa applications in May, this year. See a full timeline here.