VOA慢速英語：美國開始搜集移民的社交媒體信息

US Begins Collecting Social Media Information from Immigrants

美國開始搜集移民的社交媒體信息

United States officials now have permission to collect usernames and other social media information from all immigrants seeking to enter the country.

美國官員現(xiàn)在有權搜集所有欲進入該國的移民的用戶名和其它社交媒體信息。

The new rule went into effect October 18 as an amendment to the U.S. Privacy Act. The Privacy Act establishes policies for how the government can collect and use information about individuals. The measure was enacted in 1974 after Richard M. Nixon resigned from the presidency.

這項新規(guī)定作為美國隱私法的一項修正案于10月18日已經(jīng)生效。隱私法案制定了政府如何搜集和使用個人信息的相關政策。該措施是在1971年理查德·尼克松(Richard M. Nixon)辭職之后頒布的。

The new amendment gives the Department of Homeland Security permission to collect "social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information and search results."

這項新的修正案授權國土安全部搜集“社交媒體賬戶、化名、有關的身份識別信息以及搜索結果。”

The rule affects both permanent U.S. residents and naturalized citizens. The collected information becomes part of the person's immigration records.

該規(guī)定同時影響到美國永久居民和規(guī)劃公民。搜集到的信息成為該人員入境記錄的一部分。

The amendment also gives the government rights to monitor information on relatives of immigrants and doctors who treat immigrants. It also includes monitoring of law enforcement officials involved in investigations of immigrants, and lawyers and others who help immigrants.

這項修正案還授權政府監(jiān)查移民親屬、治療移民的醫(yī)生，另外還包括監(jiān)督參與調查移民的執(zhí)法人員和協(xié)助移民(處理事務)的律師和其他人員。

The amendment says the information can be gathered "from the internet, public records, public institutions, interviewees or commercial data providers."

該修正案表示，這些信息的搜集渠道包括“互聯(lián)網(wǎng)、公共記錄、公共機構、受訪者和商業(yè)數(shù)據(jù)提供者。”

The Department of Homeland Security, DHS, has yet to announce specific collection or processing methods for personal information from social media.

國土安全部尚未公布從社交媒體搜集和處理個人信息的具體辦法。

Joanne Talbot is a spokesperson for DHS. In a statement to media last month, she said the amendment "does not represent a new policy." She said the agency has already been able to "monitor publicly available social media to protect the homeland."

喬安妮·塔爾伯特(Joanne Talbot)是國土安全部發(fā)言人。她在上個月向媒體發(fā)表的聲明中表示，該修正案“并非一項新政策。”她說，該部門已經(jīng)能夠“監(jiān)督公開的社交媒體以保護國家安全。”

Many privacy groups have criticized the collection of usernames and other social media information by U.S. border agents. They say such questioning fails to follow existing rules and violates the privacy rights of travelers.

很多隱私團體對美國邊檢人員搜集用戶名等社交媒體信息提出了批評。他們表示，這樣的質詢不符合現(xiàn)行規(guī)則并且侵犯了旅客的隱私權。

Seamus Hughes is with the Program on Extremism at George Washington University in Washington. He says one problem is the huge amount of social media data the government will collect.

謝默斯·休斯(Seamus Hughes)就職于喬治華盛頓大學極端主義研究項目。他說，政府將要搜集的社交媒體數(shù)據(jù)數(shù)量龐大是問題之一。

"Purely from a practical standpoint, I don't see how DHS has the resources to implement this," he said on Twitter.

他在推特上表示：“單從實際操作的角度來看，我認為國土安全部沒有足夠資源來施行這項政策。”

U.S. officials have defended information gathering as a way to prevent possibly dangerous people from entering the country. Some experts say there is evidence the information can be helpful to the government if it is used in the right way.

美國官員辯解搜集信息是防止?jié)撛谖ｋU分子進入美國的途徑之一。有專家認為，有證據(jù)表明，如果正確利用這些信息對政府有幫助。

Major General Charles J. Dunlap Jr. is head of the Center on Law, Ethics, and National Security at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

查爾斯·J·鄧拉普(Charles J. Dunlap Jr.)少將是位于北卡羅來納州達勒姆市的杜克大學法律、倫理和國家安全中心的主任。

"I can't think of any situations where this monitoring and record-collection has been used in an abusive way," Dunlap said. However, he added that the program needs to be closely monitored and any abuses quickly investigated and fixed.

鄧拉普表示：“我不記得這些監(jiān)查和搜集的信息在任何情況下有被用于不正當用途。”然而，他補充說，該項目需要得到嚴密監(jiān)督，任何濫用權力的行為都要得到迅速調查和糾正。

I'm Bryan Lynn.

布萊恩·林恩報道。