US visa seekers to submit social media addresses, telephone numbers, emails

Travellers to the United States will have to submit their social media identities, previous telephone numbers and email addresses to the US embassies.
According to a State Department plan published Friday, visa seekers, whether visitors or would-be immigrants, will be presented with a list of social media platforms.

“Applicants will be required to identify which they use and provide any identifiers used by applicants for those platforms during the five years preceding the date of application.
“Other questions seek five years of previously used telephone numbers, email addresses, and international travel,” the notice, published in the Federal Register, revealed.
When these new rules were first suggested last year as part of what US President Donald Trump has called “extreme vetting” of would-be visitors, civil liberties groups sounded the alarm about privacy.
This new policy measure is expected to affect 10 million people per year.