US wants visitors to reveal their social media user names

[BobF64]

There doesn't seem to be. And there is a difference between :-

a) I don't have any such accounts, and

b) I have some, but as disclosure is optional I'm opting not to say.

But to the TSA and US Immigration both mean option B.

Because, like all of the technically daft, they believe everyone must have a social media account of one sort or another, as life is entirely incomplete or impossible without one.

If I did have any, then I sure as hell would object to disclosing them, until and unless I received a satisfactory explanation of why they wanted to know, and what happened to such information.,

Which, if all the media reports are true, will result in several hours in a small room being told nothing.
Followed by a blunt statement saying you are being refused entry without possibility of appeal or explanation.

Followed by you being sent back home and having to pay for a visa next time you want to visit as the visa waiver program is no longer available for you.

[Saracen]

But to the TSA and US Immigration both mean option B.

Because, like all of the technically daft, they believe everyone must have a social media account of one sort or another, as life is entirely incomplete or impossible without one.

Easy to caricature it like that, but personally, I don't subscribe to that theory.

Which, if all the media reports are true, will result in several hours in a small room being told nothing.
Followed by a blunt statement saying you are being refused entry without possibility of appeal or explanation.

Followed by you being sent back home and having to pay for a visa next time you want to visit as the visa waiver program is no longer available for you.

It wouldn't be the first time I've spent a period, though not several hours, in a small room answering questions. Which is polite to the treatment in some countries, including being strip-searched while two bored soldiers pointed sub-machine guns at me.

So far, either form of treatment has yet to result in being denied entry.

You are wrong on one point, however. If I was denied entry and sent home, I certainly wouldn't pay for a visa next time. There wouldn't be a 'next time'. If they don't want to let me in, even after dozens of trips, so be it. I'm pretty confident the US economy wouldn't implode without my visits, but I'm 100% certain I could survive without ever going again.

I am curious, however, as I said before, as to exactly what they do with such information. Is it retained, and if so, by who, for what purpose, and is it shared and if do, with who, and how?

For reasons I'm not going into, I've a reasonable grasp on the infrastructure required, and the transaction volumes, simply of ICE running queries from ports and airports on NCIC, and I struggle to see a business case for adding something like this to a centralised database like NCIC, and I wonder what on earth Immigration would do with the information if they did store it.

[TooNice]

Speaking of Canada, they have introduced their own version of it this year. Not too sure what it's like, though I am about to find out. It is a few quid cheaper though.

Well, it is definitely much cheaper. 7 CAD vs 14 USD, for 5 years (or passport expiry) vs 2 years. No asking any social media info, tough I must say that they have a lot more options than I am used to seeing in the relationship drop box.
As to the ESTA, I will probably leave that box blank the next time I apply and see how it goes. I'll report back if I end up in a tiny room. And if I don't report back, then.. start some conspiracy theories