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Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

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Re: Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

#141

Post by jfoworjf »

pesus wrote: post #100
jfoworjf wrote: post #5

This story is the one that finally pushed me to leave google. I moved off my ~20 year old Google account and deleted everything off their services including almost a decade of Google photos. I cancelled my Google one subscription for extra space. I'm now self hosting what I can and paying proton mail for everything else. I refuse to allow a company that will hand over data at the request of an administrative warrant…

Have you run into any serious complications doing that? I'm a bit worried that I've used my google account for so long and for many things that I might accidentally lock myself out of something important without it.

[flagged]

Re: Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

#142

Post by izacus »

soganess wrote: post #26
avazhi wrote: post #18

[flagged]

Yeah, because the American ideal of our forefathers was FAFO? This is embarrassing to admit, but I miss the halcyon days when folks were still nominally pretending to be free speech warriors.

You can follow the ideal of your forefathers by changing those abusive evil laws. Instead of demanding that foreigners risk their head in protest.

Re: Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

#143

Post by jll29 »

dismalaf wrote: post #84
jfoworjf wrote: post #5

This story is the one that finally pushed me to leave google. I moved off my ~20 year old Google account and deleted everything off their services including almost a decade of Google photos. I cancelled my Google one subscription for extra space. I'm now self hosting what I can and paying proton mail for everything else. I refuse to allow a company that will hand over data at the request of an administrative warrant…

Apple and Microsoft are also subject to US laws. It's not like any company can get around this.

That statement is true at face value. But if you look at how Eric Schmidt travels with government representatives, how rich and powerful BigTech is, and how much they individually and collectively spend on lobbying, then they could be a massive obstacle if they only cared.

Re: Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

#144

Post by convolvatron »

an apropos bit from the NYT today:

President Trump pressured House Republicans on Wednesday to extend a high-profile warrantless surveillance law without changes, declaring on social media: “I am willing to risk the giving up of my Rights and Privileges as a Citizen for our Great Military and Country!”

Mr. Trump urged the G.O.P. to “unify” behind Speaker Mike Johnson for a critical procedural vote that had been scheduled for late Wednesday night. The vote would clear the way for House approval of a bill extending a major section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The law is set to expire on April 20.

The statute, known as Section 702, permits the government to collect the messages of foreigners abroad without a warrant from American companies like Google — even if the targets are communicating with Americans.

Re: Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

#145

Post by hn_acc1 »

wmil wrote: post #86
orbisvicis wrote: post #56

How was Amandla even identified? Stingray at the protest? Then how was the phone number linked to Google? Facial recognition at the protest? I guess his details are on file under terms of the visa? So then the government simply asks Google for all details on the individual by name? Either is pretty disturbing.

Cell carriers sell geofenced data about cell phones in an area at a given time to anyone. There's zero privacy. KYC laws mean that his carrier has his name and email address and the feds probably got that without anyone informing the customer.

Tracfone burners for any protests?

Re: Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

#146

Post by sam345 »

jmward01 wrote: post #4

Privacy, technology and actual freedom overlap massively. Stories like this making it to HN are important since many of the people working at Google that had interactions with this, either by creating the tech or being aware of internal policy changes, read HN. Additionally many founders and decision makers in companies read these stories because it hit HN. Knowing that Google will do this changes your legal calculat…

Knowing that Google will do what changes your calculation? Abide by the law? I would be surprised if Google's so-Called promise to notify the subject of the inquiry was not couched in terms of being subject to legal requirements. Companies are not activists, and they shouldn't be expected to act like activists.

Re: Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

#147

Post by mothballed »

daytonix wrote: post #126
ifyoubuildit wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm all ears if you've got someone that we can put in power that won't rat fuck us when it comes to privacy or civil liberties. Bonus points if they aren't just slightly less bad than the other guy.

You should have been "all ears" during the election...

Chase Oliver was the only non-writein person on my ticket that even bothered to put up much pretenses of running on a privacy and civil liberties ticket.

Re: Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

#148

Post by izacus »

paoliniluis wrote: post #11
sMarsIntruder wrote: post #7

[flagged]

Agree. Google can't go against the all-mighty state. Just look at what Anthropic did and the effect of that action. There are billions of dollars at stake on government contracts that they can't afford to lose. Reminds me of Mullvad's ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPzvUW8qaWY

The whole notion that Google (or Apple or anyone else) should ignore and flaunt the state is insane by itself.

I don't want megacorps to ignore our EU laws just like I don't want them to ignore US laws. They're not people, they don't get the right to disobedience.

Re: Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

#149

Post by celdon25 »

smallmancontrov wrote: post #67
jmward01 wrote: post #4

Privacy, technology and actual freedom overlap massively. Stories like this making it to HN are important since many of the people working at Google that had interactions with this, either by creating the tech or being aware of internal policy changes, read HN. Additionally many founders and decision makers in companies read these stories because it hit HN. Knowing that Google will do this changes your legal calculat…

The number of HNers who were earnestly arguing that this was the party of free speech indicates that this absolutely needs to be on the HN front page. > the administration’s rhetoric about cracking down on students protesting what we saw as genocide forced me into hiding for three months. Federal agents came to my home looking for me. A friend was detained at an airport in Tampa and interrogated about my whereabouts.

If it helps you feel better, I voted for free speech and feel that the administration did not hold up their end of the deal. The FTC’s recent “debanking” letter to the payment processors is just theater until something changes. I’ll leave it at that.

Re: Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data

#150

Post by marcosdumay »

wasabi991011 wrote: post #94
quadrifoliate wrote: post #42

Honestly, I think the author is expecting too much from companies that are under jurisdiction of the US Government, especially in the situation as of 2026. It is telling that when they say "federal government" in the article, they implicitly mean the US Federal Government and not those of the UK or Trinidad and Tobago. The author (in my opinion) needs to raise this with their own governments (UK is probably the one w…

I don't see how your opinion matches the article. Expecting a company to hold its own promise (of notifying the user before it happens) sounds like a pretty minimal expectation, hard for me to imagine it being "too much". Furthermore, how would data sovereignty affect whether Google holds its promise on notifying users?

It's not anything close to minimal. Expecting a company to hold their promise against an authoritarian government is an extremely strong expectation.

It's even harder than people doing the same, because at the end of the day companies are a bunch of stuff that can be taken over and controlled by other people.

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