Google sent the student journalist’s personal and financial information to ICE

Google has handed over a batch of personal data about a student and a journalist to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to a subpoena that was not approved by a judge, according to a report by The Intercept.

The search and advertising technology giant provided ICE with usernames, physical addresses and a detailed 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 associated with 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 the request for his data came within two hours of Cornell informing him that the U.S. government had canceled his student visa.

This is the latest example of how the US government is using a controversial type of legal request, called an administrative subpoena, to demand that tech companies hand over private data of individuals who have criticized the Trump administration. This has included anonymous Instagram accounts sharing information about ICE’s presence and raids, as well as people criticizing or protesting 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 force companies to hand over the contents of someone’s email accounts, online searches, or location data, but they can request metadata and other identifiable information, such as email addresses, in an attempt to de-anonymize the owner of a particular online account.

Contrary to a court order, technology companies are not obligated 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 providing data to the Department of Homeland Security, which hosts ICE, in response to the administrative subpoenas.

“Based on our communications with targeted users, we are deeply concerned by your companies’ failure to challenge unlawful surveillance and defend user privacy and speech,” the letter said.

“We call on companies that receive these subpoenas to insist that DHS seek confirmation from a court that its demands are not illegal or unconstitutional before companies disclose any user information. We also urge you to notify users about requests for their information and give them sufficient time to challenge the subpoenas themselves.”

“We need to think carefully about what resistance looks like under these conditions… where the government and tech companies know so much about us, and can track us, imprison us, and destroy us in a variety of ways,” Thomas Johnson told The Intercept.