"The search and advertising tech giant provided ICE with the usernames, physical addresses, and an itemized list of services associated with the Google account of Amandla Thomas-Johnson, a British student and journalist who briefly attended a pro-Palestinian protest in 2024 while attending Cornell University in New York. Google also turned over Thomas-Johnson's IP addresses, phone numbers, subscriber numbers and identities, and credit card and bank account numbers linked to his account."
"This is the latest example of how the U.S. government is using a controversial type of legal request, called an administrative subpoena, to demand that tech companies turn over the private data of individuals who have been critical of the Trump administration. This has included anonymous Instagram accounts that share information about ICE presence and raids, as well as people who criticize or protest Trump and his policies."
Google handed over usernames, physical addresses, itemized services, IP addresses, phone numbers, subscriber identities, and linked credit card and bank account numbers from Amandla Thomas-Johnson's Google account to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to a subpoena that had not been approved by a judge. The subpoena included a gag order and did not state a specific justification; the demand arrived within two hours of Cornell informing Thomas-Johnson that his student visa had been revoked. Administrative subpoenas are issued directly by federal agencies without judicial intervention and can seek metadata and identifiable information to de-anonymize account owners but cannot compel email contents, searches, or location data. The U.S. government has used such subpoenas to target critics of the Trump administration, including anonymous Instagram accounts and protestors.
Read at TechCrunch
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