The Internet Society (ISOC) has
joined forces with some 50 other civil society organisations and trade
associations to petition the United Nations (UN) on social media and device
collection at the United States borders, reports ITRealms.
The petition sent to the High
Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, High Commissioner for
Refugees Filippo Grandi, William Lacy Swing, Director General of the
International Organization for Migration, and UN experts, have been garnering
supports with the latest being ISOC.
Confirming this, President and chief
executive officer, ISOC, Ms Kathryn Brown, said the group has to speak out
against proposed password disclosure requirements at US borders.
The petition which has over 90
individual experts supporting it, ITRealms gathered, showed experts are deeply concerned
that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security may require individuals to
disclose their social media account passwords as a condition of entry into the
United States.
ITRealms gathered that a few days
ago, the new U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security indicated that the U.S.
government is considering such a policy as an element of border screening, but
ISOC in condemning this plan, said it believes it will undermine Internet
security.
“We signed onto this statement
because we believe that this policy would gravely undermine Internet security
and would represent an alarming intrusion on individuals’ rights of expression,
opinion and privacy. We also worry that other nations may replicate this
approach, leading to a cascading decline in Internet security for users across
the globe,” Brown said.
The Internet Society, she said, is a
global organization that is comprised of staff, chapters, members and
volunteers around the world who all share a deep commitment to the ability of
individuals to communicate freely and securely via the Internet.
“Coercive action by a government to
demand user passwords is contrary to our values and creates unacceptable risks
to our community's ability to travel and communicate freely. We remain
committed to opposing policies such as this that would compromise global
Internet security and place our community’s security and privacy in jeopardy,”
ISOC said.
However, ITRealms
further gathered that in a joint letter sent to High Commissioner for
Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo
Grandi, William Lacy Swing, Director General of the International Organization
for Migration, and UN experts, the petitioners urged these authorities to
investigate reports that the United States is demanding that visitors provide
access to their electronic devices as well as passcodes to those devices and
online accounts.
They also decried that these practices persist in
violation of the United States’ human rights treaty obligations, and action is
needed to hold the US government accountable for the protection of human rights
at US borders, which are not zones of exclusion or exception.
Digital devices that most people carry, they said in
their pockets or bags grant access to “our social media accounts and contain a
dizzying array of personal information.”
They insisted that today, these devices multi-task as primary
means of “voice and text communication, our cameras, fitness trackers, sleep
monitors, banking portals, home shopping networks, and the source of the
answers for any questions that may come up in casual conversation.”
Further, the signatories asked the UN authorities to
raise the issues communicated in the petition with the US government, in
particular that it is failing to conform with its commitments to protect human
rights by demanding access to electronic devices and social media accounts as a
prerequisite for entry into the country.
The signatories also requested that an inquiry be
conducted to more comprehensively investigate these alarming incidents and
policies, as well as a country visit to the US to observe and monitor the
procedures at the border controls, to serve as the basis for the inquiry.
Nonye Dom/GEE
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