How to 'sanitise' your social media accounts ahead of US visa application

The US State Department said earlier this month it is restarting the process for foreigners applying for student visas, but all applicants will now be required to unlock their social media accounts for government review.

As it is, under the Donald Trump regime, anxiety and fear of being deported or detained are palpable among Indian students and other international students living in the US.

Scrutiny of social media posts, both at visa interview time and later, by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), only adds to the stress.

Also read: Indian student Badar Khan Suri detained in US, faces deportation

Right to search

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the legal right to search, detain and dig through the electronic devices of those who enter the US. The USCIS can take a call on your visa application based on your social media posts.

In short, what you said long back on Twitter or Instagram may go against your US F1 student visa approval process. People often say things on social media as teenagers with little thought to future repercussions, and these can be retrieved by the authorities.

This is why it is important for people to know their rights when they are asked by the authorities to hand over access to their social media accounts.

Also read: Indian among 4 students to move US court against possible deportation

Know your rights

According to the ACLU of Northern California, an organisation based in the US that aims to protect and advance civil liberties and create awareness of citizen rights, it is highly important to know one’s basic constitutional rights when entering the US from abroad.

It is doubly important to know your rights as an immigrant with a visa, when entering the US.

US citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (Green-Card holders or LPRs) can choose to not reply to interrogation requests by the CBP and still be let into the country. However a non-resident or visa-holder might be denied entry, detained and even deported upon refusal to answer any queries.

It is important to note that the border officials cannot select you for questioning based on your religion, race, national origin, gender, ethnicity or political beliefs.

But, if you are applying for a student visa, your application can be rejected and you cannot demand to know the reason.

Also read: US Border Patrol chief shares video of deportees in handcuffs and shackles

Types of searches

Searches by the CBP can be manual or forensic. Manual searches involve a border official looking through a device. A forensic search is more advanced, and will involve tools to extract data en masse.

It is important to keep all your phone or device’s operating system updated, which will make it harder to crack it with forensic tools.

Also read: US warns Indians of deportation, lifetime travel ban for overstaying visas

“Earlier, they used to expect visa holders to have a public-facing social media account they can review, to check if they have posted anything with terrorist ties, with slightly anti-US sentiments being allowed,” Va’an, an Indian student based in Canada, told The Federal. “But now the biggest change is that anything slightly anti-US is not allowed.”

The increasingly charged anti-immigrant sentiment of the Trump administration has made countries like Canada issue travel advisories, warning people of phone searches and seizures.

Also read: ‘Won’t tolerate visa abuse, illegal entry’: US amid outrage over handcuffing of Indian student

Social media posts on political issues are now subject to searches, and can hurt your chances in acquiring a visa. Susanne Heubel, senior counsel at New York-based immigration law firm Harter Secrest & Emery LLP told USA TODAY, “If you show any indication that your conduct could be contrary to the interests of the United States in terms of security and foreign policy...a lot of this is sort of being mixed together right now,"

Also read: Green card doesn’t mean you can stay in US for ever, says Vance

How to protect yourself

For a student visa holder or visa applicant, it is much more difficult to push back against an official when asked to give access to social media accounts. While it is easier for them to scour your account if it is public, you are still not out of the red even if your account is private.

Here are two main points:

1. According to expat community threads online, backing up all of your data to the Cloud and factory-resetting it should do the job, as you can restore everything from the Cloud once you are in the country.

This is also helpful if the CBP has your phone or other electronic devices on airplane mode, and the Cloud would be inaccessible to them. For an extra step of security, log out of your Cloud accounts on all your devices before they are subject to a search.

2. If you use face-ID, swipe patterns or a fingerprint password, whether you are a visa-holder or appliant or legal US citizen, the border officials can make you unlock your phone using these features. So you can disable these features in advance and use a PIN or an alphanumeric code that only you know.

In case you give them your phone’s code to unlock it, remember to immediately change the password and keep it only to yourself.

Also read: Trump defends mass deportations, vows to 'drain the swamp'

More in-depth alternatives

Travel with an alternative phone — not a burner phone that looks suspicious and is not connected in any way to your life, but a phone that is a sanitised version of your digital life, with separate communication and social media accounts created specifically for travel.

This will ensure that there is no access to your personal information over the years like call logs, messages, photos, apps and access to all of your digital accounts, that could reveal details of your political views and movements over time.

It is important to curate this phone and the content on it over a few months at least, with encrypted apps like WhatsApp and other messaging platforms, along with a few hours of daily usage to make it seem more legitimate.

Also note that a travel device should not share your original phone’s number, so you can purchase a SIM card for your trip, or just use the Wi-Fi whenever available.

Also read: Trump's visa crackdown: 'Affected Indian students should take legal help'

Phone 'curation'

Another way to curate a travel phone is to just use your primary phone and wipe it, backing up the data elsewhere on the Cloud, and downloading new apps and using the same tips mentioned above. You can be asked to produce the data on your Cloud, so it is imperative to be logged out of it once all of your data is on there.

The simplest solution, of course, would be to be careful about what you say on social media. If you are planning to go abroad for higher studies, be conscious of what goes into your phone. Remember, nothing electronic can be fully erased, and governments are more likely to watch what goes on social media.

So, the next time you share a meme or outrage over a protest, pause and think.