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Tell HN: US Visa application now requires you give old emails and phone numbers

31 points by philtar 7y ago

In addition to asking for all your social media accounts, they ask for your old email addresses and phone numbers. Is having SMS two factor authentication now a privacy risk? Will activating SMS two factor allow homeland security to find my online accounts from my phone number?

benevol 7y ago
"The State Department regulations say people will have to submit social media names and five years' worth of email addresses and phone numbers. When proposed last year, authorities estimated the proposal would affect 14.7 million people annually." [0] [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48486672 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48486672
- newsbinator 7y ago
  ... not counting all the people those people emailed or otherwise communicated with, whose information is now queryable by the US government without their consent or knowledge (not that it wasn't before).
  - antisemiotic 7y ago
    All the more reason to use Europe-based email hosting?
- philtar 7y ago
  Here's the actual policy instead of a news article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2018-06490.pdf https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.g... "Other questions seek five years of previously used telephone numbers, email addresses..."
basementcat 7y ago
This is similar to what is required from a USA citizen to obtain a visa to visit Iran.
- bitbatbangboo 7y ago
  wE iRAN N0W
Yetanfou 7y ago
5 years' worth of email addresses is going to be an interesting exercise in futility as I use different mail addresses for any commercial or public entity I communicate with. If I hand them a list of ~2500 mail addresses and tell them that no, I don't have a Facebook/Twitter/Snapchat/Instagram/whatever account they'll just look at me in a think-you're-being-funny-sonny kind of way and deny entrance.
- philtar 7y ago
  My concern other than the privacy implications is that I have so many throw-away social media accounts that I can't keep track of them. If one of them is discovered because of an old phone number of email address and is considered a valid reason for denial of a visa that would really hurt.
grzm 7y ago
Two submissions discussing this topic on HN: 2 days ago, over 70 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20065142 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20065142 8 hours ago, over 80 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20075608 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20075608
SteveNuts 7y ago
Theoretically a person could create a fake profile of someone they didn't like, and use that to get them denied entry to the US, correct? If the US found the profile they'd demand to know why it wasn't included in the person's application.
stunt 7y ago
> Will activating SMS two factor allow homeland security to find my online accounts from my phone number? Yes. It’s naive to think otherwise. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they can even login into your online account with 2FA enabled with SMS.

31 points by philtar 7y ago

benevol 7y ago

"The State Department regulations say people will have to submit social media names and five years' worth of email addresses and phone numbers. When proposed last year, authorities estimated the proposal would affect 14.7 million people annually." [0] [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48486672 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48486672

newsbinator 7y ago
... not counting all the people those people emailed or otherwise communicated with, whose information is now queryable by the US government without their consent or knowledge (not that it wasn't before).
- antisemiotic 7y ago
  All the more reason to use Europe-based email hosting?
philtar 7y ago
Here's the actual policy instead of a news article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2018-06490.pdf https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.g... "Other questions seek five years of previously used telephone numbers, email addresses..."

basementcat 7y ago

This is similar to what is required from a USA citizen to obtain a visa to visit Iran.

bitbatbangboo 7y ago
wE iRAN N0W

Yetanfou 7y ago

5 years' worth of email addresses is going to be an interesting exercise in futility as I use different mail addresses for any commercial or public entity I communicate with. If I hand them a list of ~2500 mail addresses and tell them that no, I don't have a Facebook/Twitter/Snapchat/Instagram/whatever account they'll just look at me in a think-you're-being-funny-sonny kind of way and deny entrance.

philtar 7y ago
My concern other than the privacy implications is that I have so many throw-away social media accounts that I can't keep track of them. If one of them is discovered because of an old phone number of email address and is considered a valid reason for denial of a visa that would really hurt.

grzm 7y ago

Two submissions discussing this topic on HN: 2 days ago, over 70 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20065142 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20065142 8 hours ago, over 80 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20075608 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20075608

SteveNuts 7y ago

Theoretically a person could create a fake profile of someone they didn't like, and use that to get them denied entry to the US, correct? If the US found the profile they'd demand to know why it wasn't included in the person's application.

stunt 7y ago

> Will activating SMS two factor allow homeland security to find my online accounts from my phone number? Yes. It’s naive to think otherwise. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they can even login into your online account with 2FA enabled with SMS.