The U.S.’ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ordered Google to reveal sensitive information about a Canadian man who was critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
As reported by Wired, the man, who is unnamed, had criticized the U.S. government following ICE’s murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January. Shortly after, DHS demanded that Google turn over the man’s location data, activity logs, and other identifying information from September 1, 2025, to February 4, 2026. The government issued this order to Google on the basis of a “customs summons,” which is used to investigate issues related to importing goods and collecting customs duties.
There are a few problems with this framing, however, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of the individual by lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). For one, the U.S. government never provided a reason in its summons for why the man is under investigation. What’s more, he hasn’t even been to the U.S. in over a decade. The lawyers added that the man’s social media posts are “passionate and even sometimes off-color but never contain threats or incite violence.” Speaking to Wired, the man said he made the posts because watching the U.S. government “smear these two souls as terrorists was absolutely disgusting and enraging.”
Michael Perloff, a senior ACLU staff attorney handling the suit, says the U.S. government is using the fact that tech companies are based in the U.S. to get information “that otherwise would be totally outside of its jurisdiction.” The government also requested that Google not disclose the summons “for an indefinite period of time,” although the tech giant did indeed alert the man on February 9.
It remains to be seen what will come out of the lawsuit, but it’s unfortunately one of a seemingly never-ending string of examples of the U.S. government’s overreach on civil liberties. Besides mass surveillance in the streets and detaining countless people for months on end, the agency has been searching social media for posts that have been critical of the government and punishing them accordingly, including revoking their Global Entry status. It’s unclear exactly how many people have been targeted like this, but The New York Times reported in February that Google, Meta, Reddit and Discord had received hundreds of subpoenas in the past several months.
Ultimately, this is sadly yet another reminder that it’s probably not a good idea to travel to America right now, especially if you’ve ever dared to criticize the U.S. government and its rent-a-cop ICE agents for murdering civilians in the streets.
Source: Wired
