Google Reveals Data of Student in Solidarity with Palestine at Request of U.S. Immigration Authorities

SadaNews - Documents obtained by the investigative website "The Intercept" revealed that "Google" complied with an order from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hand over data related to a student who participated in a solidarity protest for Palestine at Cornell University in 2024.

According to the documents, authorities requested the account numbers of student Amandla Thomas Johnson, along with his credit card information, as well as usernames, addresses, and a detailed list of services linked to his account, including IP masking services, phone numbers or devices, subscriber identities, and bank accounts.

Thomas Johnson participated for five minutes in a protest during a campus career fair against companies supplying arms to Israel, which later led to his ban from entering the campus. With Donald Trump assuming the presidency, executive orders targeting students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests were issued.

The documents indicated that "Google" informed the student in April via a brief email that it had provided his data to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The immigration order did not include a detailed justification, only stating that it was part of an "investigation or inquiry related to the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws," while requesting the company not to disclose the request for an unspecified period.

Thomas Johnson, who is British, believes the purpose of the data request was to track him in preparation for his arrest; however, he had left the United States for Geneva, Switzerland, and is currently in Dakar, Senegal.

In contrast, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which represents the student, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California sent a letter to several tech companies, including "Google", "Amazon", "Apple", "Meta", "Microsoft", "Discord", and "Reddit", urging them to resist similar orders from the Department of Homeland Security in the future and to inform users as much as possible before complying with any request, allowing them the opportunity to file a legal challenge, in addition to rejecting gag orders that prevent companies from notifying the relevant parties.