EFF Urges California and New York AGs to Probe Google's Data Disclosure to Law Enforcement

# Electronic Frontier Foundation Requests Investigations into Google The Electronic Frontier Foundation asked the attorneys general of California and New York to investigate Google for deceptive trade practices on April 14, 2026. The Verge reported the request, which addresses Google's failure to notify users before handing over their data to law enforcement agencies like ICE.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation stated that Google has promised billions of users that it will notify them before disclosing their personal data to law enforcement for nearly a decade.

Google sometimes sends data to law enforcement without notifying users in order to save time and avoid delay with complying with a government demand, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The organization seeks injunctive relief including civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation in California.

Administrative subpoenas like those issued by the Department of Homeland Security are not approved by a judge, and companies can refuse to comply with them and face no repercussions for doing so.

Case of Amandla Thomas-Johnson Amandla Thomas-Johnson is a former PhD candidate at Cornell University.

He received no notice that ICE had accessed his university email. The Department of Homeland Security subpoenaed Amandla Thomas-Johnson's personal email in May 2025. Amandla Thomas-Johnson left the country one month before May 2025 because he feared deportation.

Google notified Amandla Thomas-Johnson that the Department of Homeland Security subpoenaed his personal email. He asked Cornell University about access to his university account and received no response. Amandla Thomas-Johnson was involved in pro-Palestine activism on campus.

The Trump administration targeted student activists including Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Rümeysa Öztürk. "This is the big question — whether they were using our [Cornell] emails to track us as well," Amandla Thomas-Johnson said to the Cornell Daily Sun.

Google's Response and Subpoena Details The subpoena for Amandla Thomas-Johnson requested basic subscriber information and did not include the contents of his email, according to Google to the Cornell Daily Sun.

Amandla Thomas-Johnson's information was accessed under federal communications law 18 USC 2703(c)(2), which may require communications providers to hand over users’ address, telephone number, telephone connection records of session times and durations, and credit card or bank account number.

Records shared by Amandla Thomas-Johnson with the Cornell Daily Sun confirm this access. "Google's processes for handling law enforcement subpoenas are designed to protect users’ privacy while meeting our legal obligations," a Google spokesperson stated to the Cornell Daily Sun.

"Google reviews all legal demands for legal validity and pushes back against those that are over broad or improper including objecting to some entirely," the spokesperson added.