RE: https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/115962508398912420
If you consider going to the US, whatever the reason, don’t, for your own safety.
If you consider organizing an event to the US for an international community, you’re putting people’s lives at risk.
If you want an English-speaking environment for an international event, pick Canada or the UK. Heck, even in Scandinavian countries everyone speaks English.
We knew this was coming, but now the clock is running. From Privacy International:
"Yesterday the Trump Administration announced a proposed change in policy for travellers to the U.S. It applies to the powers of data collection by the Customs and Border Police (CBP)."
"If the proposed changes are adopted after the 60-day consultation, then millions of travellers to the U.S. will be forced to use a U.S. government mobile phone app, submit their social media from the last five years and email addresses used in the last ten years, including of family members. They’re also proposing the collection of DNA."
PI linked to and summarized a Federal Register entry describing the proposed requirements:
-All visitors must submit ‘their social media from the last 5 years’
-ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) applications will include ‘high value data fields’, ‘when feasible’
‘telephone numbers used in the last five years’
-‘email addresses used in the last ten years’
-‘family number telephone numbers (sic) used in the last five years’
-biometrics – face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
-business telephone numbers used in the last five years
-business email addresses used in the last ten years.
https://www.privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/5713/trump-administration-wants-your-dna-and-social-media
The Federal Register entry says comments are encouraged and
must be submitted (no later than February 9, 2026) to be assured of consideration.
Federal Register entry: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-12-10/pdf/2025-22461.pdf
At the individual scale, self-hosting is not a good way to “be in control of my data.”
It’s like saying I do a vegetable garden to be in control of my food. I need much more than I can grow, it’s an inefficient use of my time, and I’m one bad season away from losing it all.
Resilience and transparency are key to be in control of my data and I can’t achieve this alone. This is a social problem, we need to bring solutions as a society.
#sovereignty #selfHosting #gardening
Thib
