Secretary Kelly:

Please reject any proposal to require visa applicants, refugees, or other foreign visitors to provide passwords for online accounts, including social media, in order to enter the United States.

Such a requirement would violate human rights, create digital security risks, and undermine U.S. industry. It would chill the speech and behavior of people around the world.

Log-in access to social media accounts provides intimate information on a person as well as their connections. If you use a social media account to log in to other websites, it may also create a detailed dossier that broadly maps your entire digital life.

The requirement will disproportionately impact low-risk travelers since terrorists and criminals will simply evade these requirements by using different accounts and devices. U.S. citizens will also feel the impact, as other countries will almost certainly follow suit.

Secretary Kelly, we urge you to protect human rights and reject the collection of passwords for entry into the United States.

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What This Is:

The Department of Homeland Security is currently examining procedures to investigate travellers to the United States. In a congressional hearing, Secretary Kelly said they’re even considering forcing some travellers to provide their passwords to social media accounts as a condition to enter.

This would violate the right to privacy, freedom of expression, and create numerous cyber security risks for all people.

This proposal jeopardizes our private lives and the security of our digital accounts. We need to tell Secretary Kelly to reject this dangerous proposal.