Google sent personal and financial information of student journalist to ICE

Google handed over a trove of personal data about a student and journalist to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to a subpoena that had not been approved by a judge, according to a report by The Intercept. 

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. 

The subpoena, which reportedly included a gag order, did not include a specific justification for why ICE was requesting Thomas-Johnson’s personal data, but the student previously said that the demand for his data came within two hours of Cornell informing him that the U.S. government had revoked his student visa. 

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.

ICE and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  

Administrative subpoenas are issued directly by federal agencies without the intervention of a judge. These legal demands cannot compel companies to turn over the contents of a person’s email accounts, online searches, or location data, but can request metadata and other identifiable information, such as email addresses, in an attempt to de-anonymize the owner of a certain online account. 

Unlike a court order, tech companies are under no obligation to provide someone’s data after receiving an administrative subpoena.

Last week, the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation sent a letter to Amazon, Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Reddit, demanding that the companies stop giving data to the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, in response to administrative subpoenas.  

“Based on our own contact with targeted users, we are deeply concerned your companies are failing to challenge unlawful surveillance and defend user privacy and speech,” read the letter. 

“We call on companies in receipt of such subpoenas to insist that DHS seek court confirmation that their demands are not unlawful or unconstitutional prior to companies disclosing any user information. We also urge you to notify users about demands for their information with meaningful time to challenge subpoenas on their own,” it reads.

Thomas-Johnson told The Intercept that, “we need to think very hard about what resistance looks like under these conditions…where government and Big Tech know so much about us, can track us, can imprison, can destroy us in a variety of ways.”