Hoovering up immigrants’ social media data won’t make US safer

People sitting on park bench — Targeting social media activity is a blunt instrument

While US president Donald Trump was rolling out the September version of his travel ban, officials at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were quietly planning procedural changes to grab social media information for millions of people.

This will go into the department’s database containing what it calls Alien Files. By alien, they mean the files of immigrants, current and prospective, not little green creatures from outer space.

From 18 October, all such dossiers and related records are to include “social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and search

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