Hey,
In September we told you about a plan by an agency that runs U.S. immigrations and border security to collect your social media accounts when you travel. It sounds crazy, but they want to collect Facebook and Twitter accounts of travelers who enter the United States.
Together, we submitted more than 4,300 comments telling the agency that it is a bad idea. Despite all that, the agency is still pushing forward!
I wanted to let you know that yesterday, we took our case directly to the Obama Administration. We visited the agency (it’s called OIRA) that must approve all new federal regulations before they can take effect. We teamed up with the ACLU, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and the Electronic Privacy Information Privacy Center to make the case.
We told the government that this collection violates our rights of freedom of expression and freedom of association, it is expensive, it is inefficient, and would extend the government’s already expansive surveillance operations.
We don’t know what the Obama Administration will do — the review is not transparent —but I wanted to let you know that we’re still committed to protecting your digital rights.
Sincerely,
Nathan