Memorandum Updating All Forms to Collect Baseline Biographic Data, CBP will add several “high value data fields” to the ESTA application, when feasible. This is in addition to the information already collected in the ESTA application. The high value data fields include:
- 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.
https://public-nspection.federalregister.gov/2025-22461.pdf (page 9 & 10)
Looking to the US tourism industries to further collapse.
This is so intrusive that most of the “I have nothing to fear if I have nothing to hide” crowd will get creeped out by this.
They will enforce it selectively to avoid that outcome. Even now their tourism industry has taken a hit but many tourists still go without incident.
The thing is that a lot of people will see this and aren’t even going to book a flight to see if they’re going to be selected or not