The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have proposed new rules that would expand digital vetting of tourists, students, workers and journalists to include up to ten years of email addresses and five years of social media history.The measure would require travelers from Visa Waiver Program countries to submit social media account identifiers and could collect extensive phone, family and metadata that would shape ESTA and visa approvals, and the change will take effect on February 8 unless agencies revise the timetable during the public consultation.Critics including Ben Rapp, Jeramie Scott, Patrick Eddington and Amund Trellevik say the sweeping checks amount to a fishing expedition that enables AI-driven profiling, risks retaliation from European partners and may chill travel and billions in visitor spending, while Donald Trump and supporters argue that deeper scrutiny is needed to keep out the “wrong kind of people.”