Google handed over extensive personal data about a student journalist to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to a subpoena that had not been approved by a judge, raising concerns about how tech companies respond to administrative demands for user information.
The search giant provided ICE with 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. 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. The student previously said the demand came within two hours of Cornell informing him the U.S. government had revoked his student visa. This is the latest example of how the U.S. government is using administrative subpoenas to demand tech companies turn over private data of individuals critical of the Trump administration, including anonymous Instagram accounts sharing information about ICE presence and people who protest Trump policies.
Administrative subpoenas are issued directly by federal agencies without court intervention. These legal demands cannot compel companies to turn over contents of email accounts, online searches, or location data, but can request metadata and other identifiable information such as email addresses to de-anonymize account owners. Unlike a court order, tech companies are under no obligation to provide data after receiving an administrative subpoena.
Last week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation sent a letter to Amazon, Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Reddit demanding the companies stop giving data to the Department of Homeland Security 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,” the letter read.
Thomas-Johnson said “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.” ICE and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
