Feb 13, 2026 · 5 min read
Google Gave ICE a Journalist's Bank Details. No Judge Was Involved.
An administrative subpoena, issued without judicial oversight, was enough for Google to hand over a student journalist's IP addresses, phone numbers, and credit card information to immigration authorities.
What Google Turned Over
In April 2026, Amandla Thomas-Johnson, a British student journalist whose work has appeared in Al Jazeera and The Guardian, received an email from Google notifying him that his data had already been shared with the Department of Homeland Security. No prior notice. No chance to challenge the request. The data was already gone.
Google turned over his IP addresses, phone numbers, subscriber identities, an itemized list of services he used (including VPN and IP masking tools), and his credit card and bank account numbers. Thomas-Johnson had linked banking information to his Gmail account for app purchases, a routine action that millions of Gmail users have also taken.
No Judge Required
The legal mechanism that made this possible is called an administrative subpoena. Unlike a court order or warrant, an administrative subpoena requires no judicial authorization. ICE issues them unilaterally. There is no judge reviewing whether the request is justified, no hearing, and no independent oversight.
Critically, companies are not legally obligated to comply with administrative subpoenas. They can challenge them, delay them, or refuse them. Google chose to comply, and chose not to notify Thomas-Johnson before doing so.
Why This Journalist Was Targeted
Thomas-Johnson's connection to ICE's attention was a five minute protest at a 2024 Cornell University job fair, where he participated in a demonstration targeting companies supplying weapons to Israel. The protest resulted in a campus ban. The subpoena for his Google data arrived within hours of Cornell notifying him that his student visa had been revoked.
Believing that ICE sought his information for detention purposes, Thomas-Johnson fled the United States. He now lives abroad, first in Geneva, then Dakar.
A Pattern, Not an Isolated Case
The EFF, which is representing Thomas-Johnson, and the ACLU of Northern California sent a letter to Google, Amazon, Apple, Discord, Meta, Microsoft, and Reddit warning that government demands for user data are escalating. "Your promises to protect the privacy of users are being tested right now," the letter stated. "Agencies like DHS have repeatedly demanded access to the identities and information of people on your services."
DHS has been using administrative subpoenas to identify people running anonymous social media accounts critical of government policies, including accounts that track ICE raid activity. The subpoenas target the platforms these individuals use, demanding the real identities behind anonymous accounts.
What This Means for Google Users
If you use Gmail, Google Pay, the Play Store, or any Google service with payment information attached, Google holds your banking details alongside your email content, search history, location data, and IP logs. A single administrative subpoena, issued without a judge's approval, can potentially access all of it.
Google's transparency report shows the company receives tens of thousands of government data requests each year. In the majority of cases, Google produces at least some data. The difference between you and Thomas-Johnson is not the data Google holds. It is whether anyone has asked for yours yet.
Reducing Your Exposure
The less data a platform holds about you, the less there is to hand over. Review what payment information is linked to your Google account. Consider whether every Google service you use needs to be tied to a single account. Use separate email addresses for sensitive communications.
Every data point you give a platform is a data point that can be subpoenaed. That includes the metadata generated by email tracking pixels, which record when you open messages, your IP address, and your device information. Blocking these trackers in your inbox is one more way to limit what can be collected and potentially demanded by authorities.