alt Hacker NewsGoogle handed ICE student journalist's bank and credit card numbers
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So I don't think I actually have a problem with businesses handing over their customer data if there is a valid warrant or subpoena. That's the system working as intended.
The main crux of the problem here is that the DHS has been granted a wide berth by congress to issue administrative subpoenas - i.e. not reviewed by a real judge and not directed at criminals. In "good" times this made investigations run smoothly. But the reality now is that ICE is doing wide dragnets to make arrests without any judicial oversight and often hostile to habeas corpus.
(Also, my understanding is that when banking is involved, it may also fall under the Banking Secrecy Act and Know Your Customer Rules - a whole other privacy nightmare.)
I know we instinctively want to frame this as a privacy problem, but the real problem we need congress to act on is abolishing these "shadow" justice systems that agencies have been able to set up.
The title should be Google handed _over_ these things. Otherwise it reads as though they were handed _to_ Google.
Google discloses stats about government requests via FISA / National Security Letters: https://transparencyreport.google.com/user-data/us-national-...
I was in one of these published NSLs issued by FBI a few years ago. I was notified by Google after the nondisclosure period.
Centralised bank system, centralised internet, centralised power. What could possibly go wrong?
What are some ways users can insulate themselves from something like this?
For more context see the Cornell article from last year
> The first email, sent on May 8 from Cornell International Services, stated that his immigration status had been terminated by the federal government. The second email, sent from Google on the same day, notified him that his personal email account had been subject to a subpoena by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 31.
https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2025/11/immigration-autho...
Basically he was a British national with a student visa who was going to be deported for pro-palestian activism (under Trumps executive order mandating immigration authorities to do so), so he self-deported. Other's mention in the thread it's not clear if Google handed over any information.
"full extent of the information...including any IP masking services"
This suggests that Google aggregates derived information based on how a user uses Google (i.e. VPN info). The fact that derived info was also potentially passed along is particularly upsetting to me.
Aside from the fact that I don't think companies should be able to collect user data at all (if you disagree, I think there's a good chance you're at least a little bit fascist), this amounts to Google providing free surveillance services to the government.
If you squint, it's minority-report-esque: eventually Google will tell the govt who it thinks is likely to commit crimes based on how they interact with its AIs. Almost certainly coming to a society near you soon.
I remember someone saying that there is no privacy in large companies because they make money by selling or sharing users' personal data :/
Biggest thing to note is that this was a so-called "administrative" warrant, not a real judicial warrant. Google did this voluntary.
> on tech companies to resist similar subpoenas in the future from DHS without court intervention.
Haha nice one, these tech companies are willing to have a deal with devil to get those lucrative Gov contracts, and since it’s the the wild west now in the US, the only action users can do is abandoning all these tech companies and look for alternatives.
Big capital is presently running the USA. Democracy no longer exists there as a factual entity - whether it is ICE agents gunning down US citizens or whether it is corporations run by the superrich spying on people and undermining their ability to e. g. protest.
There is too much a focus on Trump here - one should focus on the whole criminal entity. The whole network. It is true that the fish starts to rot from the head (well, not quite, but it is a common saying), but in reality there are numerous parts that are rotting away.
IMO there has to be a re-distribution of both wealth and power; as well as influence.
When I was a student, I could never have gone to such lengths to avoid government scrutiny.
He must have plenty of money.
Just out of curiosity. Are there any companies today that are seen the way Google used to be seen, as a generally “good” corporation/companies that are also a important player? Maybe Mozilla Foundation?
Look how far they'll go to protect Israel. But when it comes to Epstein friends and co, they need evidence to proof that water is wet..
Looking at what ICE does to people I think the only thing they should be handed is a noose around their necks. Just read at what they do in their concentration camps and on the streets. Even if "lawful", governments that approve such treatment in my opinion do not belong in decent human world.
Google ought to rethink its policy of disclosing government subpoenas to users. Every time this happens, the media uses it to attack Google. They'd be better off leaving users in the dark about these legally required data disclosures. Even if most users don't go crying to the media when it happens, it's still not worth it.
Why the hell did Google even have his bank account numbers? I wish there was more information on which Google service(s) this data was pulled from.
Does anyone still remember when Western countries were scared of Huawei because the Chinese would use their hardware to spy on people?
Well, guess what? The U.S. also has their own Huawei. But, at least, they're "democratic" and follow "the rule of the law" (for whatever these words mean nowadays).
I left google search for duckduckgo a few years ago due to all the marketing drivel returned. I guess there is yet another, better reason, to avoid google.
As for gmail, it joined my old yahoo mail as a dumping ground. If some site wants an email, they get my gmail address, which I never go to these days.
But how did google get this person's info ? Are they spying on their emails, or worse yet, are they scraping data for apps you installed on your android phone ?
The famous "Don't be evil" ia more and more ironic. But to be honest, if they got the court order there is really nothing's they could do.
In this case you should blame the game not the player.
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"Journalist"
Like I said previously [0], Big Tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon cooperate with ICE just like how Palantir does.
So when are you going to stop using Google? (You won't will you?)
Remember "Don't be evil"? It's crazy anyone would trust a corporation with anything these days.
LOL, any of you still using Google? I'm down to 5%.
2026 will be the year I get to 0%.
edit: "directly using"
This does not surprise me. The continued existence of Google is a net negative for humanity.
Sadly, it didn't start out like this.
Ragebait article. Headline should be "Google complies with court order"
https://archive.ph/e4DY7