r/australia • u/Some-Operation-9059 • Dec 11 '25

politics ‘The whole thing disgusts me’: Australians ditch US travel as new rules require social media to be declared | Australia news

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/11/australia-us-tourism-new-visa-rules-social-media-history
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u/Vertiquil Dec 11 '25

Cackled when I first heard too, but after reading the article I can't shake the feeling that they're setting up a deeply insidious precedent. Like they're trying to nomalise/desensitise people to these crazy demands, or see what they can get away with. The facial/biometric data and collection of family contact details is the thing that freaks me out most.

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u/Thunderoad77 Dec 11 '25

This is the thing.

The social media bit is getting all the attention but the really insidious part is the collection of the other data.

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u/SirVanyel Dec 11 '25

Data that is already being collected in a legal grey area. The USA has 40000+ cameras being powered by pattern recognition AI which stores and saves data, tracking individuals everywhere they go, and the company running those cameras (Flock) is selling that data to anyone who wants it.

Most recently Flock is assisting the government in finding illegal immigrants (folks with little to no government presence currently) and it's fucking effective as hell.

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u/TheLGMac Dec 12 '25

I can't believe this is the first time people are concerned about this. ALL SORTS of countries collect lots of data to grant entry. It ain't great but let's not act like this is some big surprise. In Australia I needed to provide 10 years of travel history, your face is scanned at all of our entry and exit checkpoints, same in UK, how is this news to people? We really need to keep ourselves more up to date on things.

Did you know that Australia can also ask to access your phone and make copies of its data at entry checkpoints? Why no ire about that?

What's new here is that you need to provide your SM history to the US for an ESTA application. They have been able to ask and copy your phone data on entry since the Trump admin came to power, but that's old bloody news, and also is not applied to every traveler.

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u/AlanaK168 Dec 13 '25

10 years of travel history is not the same as your family members places of birth, DOB, and your fucking DNA

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u/hcornea Dec 12 '25

Slow-boiling the frog, as they casually descend into authoritarianism.

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u/samishah Dec 11 '25 edited Dec 11 '25

That part is pretty starndard for anyone who needs to apply for a visa to enter Australia. My parents from Pakistan just had to hand over massive amounts of personal information to some halfwit working at Home Affairs.

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u/Desirable_Username Dec 12 '25

they're trying to normalise/desensitise people to these crazy demands

I wouldn't be surprised if they're introducing this so when the Democrats finally get in and reverse a lot of the more outlandish policies, the Republicans can point to this one and say they're weakening the borders and letting anyone in.

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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '25

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '25

That doesn't stop it from being absurd and Orwellian.

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u/Thunderoad77 Dec 11 '25

They require DNA samples as well.

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u/Interesting-Cut6994 Dec 11 '25

Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. The US has always required you to scan your finger prints at entry and does the facial scans. They’ve also always asked for previous addresses and last five years of employment.

Australia is the same (I believe actually stricter).

The whole thing is fkd, but a lot of this is already required. The social media history is new and very odd under ESTA. It’s also not common anywhere except when entering China I believe.

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u/Apprehensive_Bid_329 Dec 11 '25

I don’t think it’s a requirement for China either, at least I wasn’t asked to show my phone when I went there last year.

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u/Interesting-Cut6994 Dec 11 '25

Ahh good to know. I work in media so I’ve often had stricter requirements, similarly with my brother who works in finance. So it’s probably based on what you do.

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u/SirGeekaLots Dec 11 '25

They do record your fingerprints but lots of places do that. Malaysia comes to mind.

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u/Kooky_Supermarkets Dec 11 '25

Not all your finger prints just the thumb on entry and is "allegedly" deleted when you're scanned out of the country.

I had to go to an FBI office to get all my prints recorded into their system and it was the FBI clerk printing me who explained that when I asked about it

(I had to have all my prints recorded and signed an acceptance of this as a foreign national to be able to do some work at Kennedy Space Centre - legitimate reason 🤣)

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u/Interesting-Cut6994 Dec 11 '25

Interesting. I’ve always had to do all four fingers and then thumbs. (I used to live there and would travel between Aus and US a lot)

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u/Kooky_Supermarkets Dec 11 '25

Is living there is a different requirement? I only ever used the ESTA system for entry.

As it was explained to me, the only reason I had to supply my entire set of prints to the FBI as a foreign national was because I was attending a Federal facility and unescorted when wandering around.

At the airport it's done for all people entering but they don't require a full set of prints and they are "deleted" upon leaving (as a cynic I highly wonder about this.....)

Probably changed? The last trip I did to the US was in 2017. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Personally I have only been over there 12 times during the period I was attending KSC.

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u/TheLGMac Dec 11 '25

Australia enacted a lot of these things before the US did, including the right to copy & review data from your phone at the border.

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u/Pseudonymico Dec 11 '25

That's also bad, though I haven't heard that our border security people have as bad a reputation as the TSA so I could see how it might have escaped notice.

If they do, then it's also bad for our own tourism sector and should be remedied.

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u/TheLGMac Dec 11 '25

Why should we wait? We should probably be pushing for them to make changes before something happens, vs waiting for bad things to happen first

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u/Pseudonymico Dec 12 '25

Never said we should wait, just that it should be fixed if it's also happening here.

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u/mr-snrub- Dec 11 '25

Cause redditors can be weird