Credit: Rachel Hurley Substack.

I never thought we’d get to a place where handing over five years of your social media would feel like the least invasive part of entering the United States as a tourist, but here we are.

The Department of Homeland Security is proposing new rules for people using the ESTA system. These are visitors from places like the EU, the UK, Australia, Japan, and the rest of the Visa Waiver countries. People who currently don’t need a visa. And the list of what they’ll be required to hand over reads like something ripped from a security state fever dream.

Tourists would need to turn in: • Every social media account from the last five years • Full biometrics: face, fingerprints, iris scan, and yes, DNA • All phone numbers from the last five years • All email addresses from the last ten • IP addresses and metadata from any photos they submit • Names of immediate family members • Family members’ phone numbers from the last five years • Their dates and places of birth • Where they live • All business phone numbers from the last five years • All business emails from the last ten

And that’s just to come here on vacation. If you’re someone who actually needs a visa, I’d brace for something even more extreme.

This isn’t rumor or speculation. It’s right there in DHS documentation.