Report from Taipei: Do Visitors to the U.S. Really Have Their Emails and Credit Card Transactions Inspected?

Folks outside of the U.S. are increasinglyg being warned that going to the U.S. could result in privacy incidents, as demonstrated by another such report today in the Taipei Times, “Traveling to the US could trigger a loss of privacy
An excerpt from the report:

“Under a US-EU deal struck in October, the Daily Telegraph said passengers face having other transactions on their credit cards inspected by US authorities if they use the card to reserve flights.
Under the headline “license to snoop” on flying Britons, the daily added that passengers who provide an e-mail address to an airline could see other messages sent or received on that account studied by the US government.
The paper said the details were revealed in “undertakings” given by the US Department of Homeland Security to the EU and published by Britain’s Department for Transport following a Freedom of Information request.”

I quickly looked through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) site for something that got into the specifics of email and credit card use surveillance, but I couldn’t find anything specific.
I think the press release about the agreement referenced in this report is “Vast Majority of Visa Waiver Countries Meet Security Upgrade to e-Passports.” However, it does not get into any details about surveillance of emails or credit card transactions.

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