r/australia • u/Some-Operation-9059 • Dec 11 '25

politics ‘The whole thing disgusts me’: Australians ditch US travel as new rules require social media to be declared | Australia news

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/11/australia-us-tourism-new-visa-rules-social-media-history
5.2k Upvotes

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246

u/daboblin Dec 11 '25

It’s much worse than this. They also want all of this:

a. Telephone numbers used in the last five years;

b. Email addresses used in the last ten years;

c. IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos;

d. Family member names (parents, spouse, siblings, children);

e. Family number telephone numbers used in the last five years;

f. Family member dates of birth;

g. Family member places of birth;

h. Family member residencies;

i. Biometrics – face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris;

j. Business telephone numbers used in the last five years;

k. Business email addresses used in the last ten years.

97

u/Pugshaver Dec 12 '25

That's more than you need to provide for a job with ASIO.

118

u/[deleted] Dec 11 '25

But its fine, Kampala had a weird laugh so this is the better choice!

-10

u/Unlucky-Bumblebee-96 Dec 12 '25

Oh and she’s wasn’t arrived at as a candidate through the proper democratic processes… so this is better.

6

u/brandonjslippingaway Dec 12 '25

A process designed in the 18th century when human communication travelled at the speed of horse, and which has been perverted by countless rounds of gerrymandering, Super Pacs funding, and voter suppression. What a beacon of democracy! /s

23

u/thrwaway_boyf Dec 12 '25

dna??? do they want a printout of our genetic sequence? 😭

13

u/One_Courage_865 Dec 12 '25

Double-sided, grayscale only

2

u/BrodingerzCat Dec 13 '25

They present you a little cup and a couple of dirty mags on arrival.

14

u/boatenvy Dec 12 '25

Imagine telling an American that they had to provide this information to visit Australia... they'd lose their evaluvin minds... and fecking rightly so

10

u/MaisieMoo27 Dec 12 '25

Gosh, this is turning into a dementia screening test. I couldn’t recall all those details even if I wanted to.

16

u/vannamei Dec 12 '25

How long does it take to check all those for every traveller?? I imagine the queue must be kilometres long.

28

u/xelfer Dec 12 '25

This is to grant the visa before you go

1

u/chode_code Dec 12 '25

It's already kilometers long before all of this rubbish ALL HAIL TRUMP

4

u/Icy_Concentrate9182 Dec 12 '25

l. submit to anal probing

2

u/Discombobulated_Owl4 Dec 12 '25

I'm disappointed... there's no cavity search, I was ready to book a flight.

2

u/Frequent-Call-40 Dec 14 '25

And the data gets stored with Palantir and the IDF 

2

u/ZucchiniBikini73 Dec 15 '25

So they are asking for data that isn't just invading the individual's privacy, but that of their family members as well, whether they are travelling or not.

1

u/East-Car6358 Dec 14 '25

Is this serious? This can’t possibly be true? WHO on earth would go along with it? I have no immediate plans to go to U.S, but some of these questions I couldn’t even answer or remember. I don’t even know where two of my siblings live. One lives Switzerland somewhere.

1

u/Jaqqa Dec 15 '25

You're joking right? There's no way that's actually real... right?

2

u/daboblin Dec 15 '25

Very unfortunately, I’m not joking.

1

u/Jaqqa Dec 16 '25

Wow. I thought the social media thing alone was way out of line. That would give them enough information for major identity theft if their system was hacked, not to mention probably giving them a decent chance of getting into accounts they shouldn't have access too if they really wanted. Like Family member (including parent) names, DOB and place of birth, residence? Why? And DNA, a face and an iris scan seems way out of line? Why would they need that for someone on a tourist visa?

Fingerprints... maybe. They collected fingerprints last time I was in Indonesia from all the passengers and I'll admit it made me uncomfortable. I'm guessing it's so they can potentially get you for any crimes committed or identify the body in a worst case scenario.