Lawyers in data protection warning over handing over social media details to US immigration

Clarke Willmott partner Susan Hall warns that data protection and client confidentiality requirements could be breached

Law firm Clarke Willmott has warned that people handing over social media details to US customs could be breaking UK and EU data protection laws, and that lawyers complying with such orders risk breaching client confidentiality obligations.

The new requirements were brought-in in December, before President Trump was inaugurated.

"From 20 December 2016 the online system which allows visitors to the US from countries which benefit from the visa waiver system, which includes the UK, has included a new question," said Clarke Willmott partner Susan Hall.

"It reads: ‘Social Media (optional) please enter information associated with your online presence.' This invites the applicant to fill in details of the social media platforms used by the applicant and their user names associated with those platforms."

Some reports in the US indicate that these requirements could be made compulsory and extended by Trump.

She continued: "The USA reserve the right to turn people away at the border, but the practicalities of that mean that someone could be stuck at an airport with little support and feel pressured into giving information.

"Many people use different aspects of social media for different parts of their lives. Many business people might use Linked In for business but use Facebook for interacting with friends. If you have to reveal all of the links then it is possible for a third party to put different parts of your life together.

"There is growing concern about how this information might be used or stored. There is also concern about what exactly border officials are looking for. Are they checking a person's political affiliation? Their religion? Cross-checking information already obtained from other sources?"

The new requirements and the possibility that they could be extended and made compulsory to disclose for all travellers trying to enter the US for any reason - business people as well as tourists - means that organisations will have to consider the data protection and client confidentiality implications of travelling to, or through, the US, she added.

"Given the speed with which the first week of the Trump administration rewrote the political landscape and the use of executive orders to do so, this is a dynamic area, and one where anyone proposing to travel to the US needs to be aware of might be required," said Hall.