美国官员现在有权搜集所有欲进入该国的移民的用户名和其它社交媒体信息。
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.
这项新规定作为美国隐私法的一项修正案于10月18日已经生效。隐私法案制定了政府如何搜集和使用个人信息的相关政策。该措施是在1971年理查德·尼克松（Richard M. Nixon)辞职之后颁布的。
The new amendment gives the Department of Homeland Security permission to collect "social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information and search results."
这项新的修正案授权国土安全部搜集“社交媒体账户、化名、有关的身份识别信息以及搜索结果。”
The rule affects both permanent U.S. residents and naturalized citizens. The collected information becomes part of the person's immigration records.
该规定同时影响到美国永久居民和规划公民。搜集到的信息成为该人员入境记录的一部分。
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.
这项修正案还授权政府监查移民亲属、治疗移民的医生，另外还包括监督参与调查移民的执法人员和协助移民（处理事务）的律师和其他人员。
The amendment says the information can be gathered "from the internet, public records, public institutions, interviewees or commercial data providers."
该修正案表示，这些信息的搜集渠道包括“互联网、公共记录、公共机构、受访者和商业数据提供者。”
The Department of Homeland Security, DHS, has yet to announce specific collection or processing methods for personal information from social media.
国土安全部尚未公布从社交媒体搜集和处理个人信息的具体办法。
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."
乔安妮·塔尔伯特（Joanne Talbot）是国土安全部发言人。她在上个月向媒体发表的声明中表示，该修正案“并非一项新政策。”她说，该部门已经能够“监督公开的社交媒体以保护国家安全。”
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.
很多隐私团体对美国边检人员搜集用户名等社交媒体信息提出了批评。他们表示，这样的质询不符合现行规则并且侵犯了旅客的隐私权。
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.
谢默斯·休斯（Seamus Hughes）就职于乔治华盛顿大学极端主义研究项目。他说，政府将要搜集的社交媒体数据数量庞大是问题之一。
"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：“单从实际操作的角度来看，我认为国土安全部没有足够资源来施行这项政策。”
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.
美国官员辩解搜集信息是防止潜在危险分子进入美国的途径之一。有专家认为，有证据表明，如果正确利用这些信息对政府有帮助。
Major General Charles J. Dunlap Jr. is head of the Center on Law, Ethics, and National Security at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
查尔斯·J·邓拉普（Charles J. Dunlap Jr.）少将是位于北卡罗来纳州达勒姆市的杜克大学法律、伦理和国家安全中心的主任。
"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.
邓拉普表示：“我不记得这些监查和搜集的信息在任何情况下有被用于不正当用途。”然而，他补充说，该项目需要得到严密监督，任何滥用权力的行为都要得到迅速调查和纠正。
I'm Bryan Lynn.
我是布莱恩·林恩。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)