The Trump administration plans to make NZ visitors submit sweeping personal data, including social media, family details and even DNA, writes Catherine McGregor in today\u2019s extract from The Bulletin.<\/p>\n
To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday,\u00a0sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n A bigger net for visa-waiver travellers<\/p>\n New Zealanders travelling to the US could soon be required to hand over a far broader set of personal information\u00a0under a proposal lodged by US Customs and Border Protection last week<\/a>. The plan targets 42 visa-waiver countries \u2013 including New Zealand and Australia \u2013 and would make disclosure of five years\u2019 social media history a mandatory part of the Esta process. It would also add a suite of \u201chigh value\u201d data fields, including phone numbers used in the past five years, email addresses used in the past decade, extensive family members\u2019 details, and biometric information such as facial images, fingerprints, DNA and iris scans. The proposal is subject to a 60-day public comment period, but it seems likely to pass.<\/p>\n Announcing its new requirements on Wednesday, the Trump administration said the restrictions would ensure visitors to the US \u201cdo not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles\u201d.<\/p>\n What border agents might look for<\/p>\n An immigration lawyer\u00a0tells the Australian Financial Review<\/a> officials are scanning not just for evidence of illegal behaviour, but also for political or security red flags. \u201cTypically, they\u2019re looking for anything that is anti-American, anti-Israel or anything that could be considered inciting terrorism or unrest.\u201d The official statement about visitors with \u201chostile attitudes\u201d is deliberately vague,\u00a0writes Alistair Kitchen<\/a>, an Australian journalist who was deported for reporting on pro-Palestinian protests. \u201cThe policy is designed to produce an atmosphere of self-censorship. The end result, the administration hopes, will be a monoculture of approval \u2013 a world in which dissent has been sufficiently discouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n Nik Dirga\u2019s RNZ explainer<\/a>\u00a0published earlier this year, amid a spate of reports about travellers questioned or turned away after device checks, notes that border officers have wide authority to search phones and laptops. Crucially, deleting apps or posts before travelling may not be enough. Cached data can remain on devices, and information may already be held elsewhere, including by US government-friendly data-mining companies such as Palantir. As one anonymous telecommunications expert told Dirga: \u201cI suspect if you\u2019ve been online telling everyone what you think about Donald, it\u2019s too late\u201d even if you delete information from your phone.<\/p>\n Government unwilling to get involved<\/p>\n So far, New Zealand\u2019s official response has been muted. Deputy prime minister David Seymour said the US had the right to set its own policy, adding: \u201cAll I\u2019d say is Kiwis are a pretty friendly bunch, don\u2019t pry too hard on us.\u201d<\/p>\n