New U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations took effect this month that combine two bad ideas — fees to encourage foreigners to visit the US by charging them more to do so, and fees for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) — in a way that creates new possibilities for travel surveillance and […]
According to a recently-released European Commission staff working document, the U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) is not “tantamount to the … visa … process” required for admission to the European “Schengen Zone”, and therefore does not give cause for the imposition of reciprocal visa requirements for US citizens seeking to enter Schengen countries. […]
In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register on June 9, 2008 (73 Federal Register 32440-32453), the Department of Homeland Security has proposed a new system for foreign citizens intending to visit the U.S without visas, and to enter the U.S. by air or sea, to apply for and receive an additional […]
Should a visitor to the US have to install and use a US government app that runs secret code to collect an unknown amount of data using any or all of their phone’s sensors, connects to other unknown data sources and recipients, and uses secret algorithms based on that secret dataset to “auto-deny” some ESTA […]
When we posted our latest know-your-rights guide, we noted that it describes the rights of U.S. citizens if you are stopped and/or asked to identify yourself or show ID documents in certain circumstances: as a pedestrian, as a passenger in a car (not the driver), at home, or at the airport for a domestic flight. […]
By a notice published today in the Federal Register, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is requesting approval not only to make all foreigners visiting the US without visas submit a comprehensive set of biometric identifiers (“face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris”) but to do so by installing and using a closed-source CBP smartphone app that […]
Since scare tactics haven’t gotten everyone in the U.S. to sign up for REAL-ID or show ID whenever they fly, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is turning to extortion through the threat of a new $45 fee to fly without “acceptable” ID. The proposed fee and the modified “ID verification” program it would pay for […]
The case of Rutgers University professor Mark Bray and his family provides an object lesson in the importance of being able to travel anonymously, and how the practices of governments and airlines endanger travelers by making them identifiable. Dr. Bray, his partner Dr. Yesenia Barragan (also a professor at Rutgers), and their two young children […]
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced plans for changes to its procedures for processing information sent to CBP by airlines (and possibly also train, bus, and ferry operators) about passengers on international routes with non-binary or non-gendered “X” gender marker passports, to take effect on Tuesday, October 12, 2025. The planned changes were […]
How can your movements be tracked? The Penlink surveillance company counts some of the ways: Penlink was brought to our attention by a report from Joseph Cox in 404 Media that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the US Department of Homeland security (DHS) is entering into a contract with Penlink as a […]