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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

#571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the find-my-phone BLE database, for which I just learned modern phones broadcast even when off? Is that controlled by the OS (Google, Apple) and not the carrier?

i mean proprietary baseband blobs already provide a back door , but does anyone have a reference for the perpetual ble broadcast ?

""" If the battery runs out or device is off

For supported devices, which include Pixel 8, Pixel 9, and Pixel 10 series, the Find Hub network can locate your phone for several hours even if the battery runs out or the device is powered off. """

https://support.google.com/android/answer/3265955?hl=en#zipp...

Couldn't find any official documentation from Apple, but there's this:

https://www.howtogeek.com/805624/what-does-iphone-findable-a...

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

#572
post #546
post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To condone what happens to him, you must first condone that your government lists and identifies people attending opponent meetings. Whether the government waits for him to leave the country to violate his rights feels like a small detail in this issue. Also, if you intend to claim that us foreigners are free targets for any abhorent behaviour of your government, maybe you should rename your bill of rights a bill of…

Whoa! I’d slow down with the hypotheses, considering we have one side of the story. What we do know is that the US, like all other countries, has wide legal latitude on not allowing foreigners into the country. You can be denied entry for no more than a Facebook like of the wrong post.

? hypotheses?

The previous comment makes it clear that this situation cannot be operationalized without having lists of people who attended events.

Now sure how you comment a continuation of the conversation?

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

#573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. If you're a guest in a country and don't follow the law you should be deported. You don't need waste money putting them on trial (except for murder/rape/etc), just deport.

How do you find out if someone followed the law without a trial?

[deleted]

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

#574
post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem is, technically yes, they have a right, but their visa can be arbitrarily cancelled for very unspecified reasons, like the government not liking what you are doing and calling a potential security risk. This targeting of people, because they can, amazes me that Americans are so accepting of it. To me this says they'd do this to their citizens if they could. You already have the attack on birth right citiz…

IDK, I think "foreigners shouldn't be coming over here as guests and then trying to influence our politics" is a reasonable stance, and doesn't say anything about targeting citizens.

weird, don't you think that stance is just fear of free speech? I see it as completely unreasonable. America (of the past now?) has a history of inviting all kinds of people to discuss politics, philosophy, religion from all over the world.... but now you are scared of what people have to say? Also if you don't recognize that it is political targeting (not of citizens, but anyone by any means the government has its disposal), then that's a real problem. We can see the targeting of legitimate visitors, attacks on birth right citizenship, attempts to reconstruct electoral borders. Mass firing from the government institutions of people with differing opinions. Like I said, it's weird americans are so accepting.... "seems reasonable".

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

#575
post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here’s a video of what this guy was involved in (to my best knowledge): https://statements.cornell.edu/2024/20241019-career-fair-dis... I’m a First Amendment absolutist and AFAIK foreign students can protest, but this video shows to me it probably crosses the line into something else. Exactly what, I have no opinion.

Yeah, masks and intentionally antagonizing police doesn't scream peaceful protest

It sounds like you're trying to shift the legal goalposts of "peaceful" into something more like "inoffensive" or "respectful" or "polite".

For example, you have a First Amendment right to "peacefully" hurl the most awful insults you can think of at a police officer.

If that police officer feels "antagonized"--or even if your goal was to hurt their feelings--that does not permit them to abuse the special power of their workplace to attack you. If they try anyway, now that's a real crime.

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

#576
post #512

The First Amendment applies to everyone on US soil, not just citizens. That’s settled law. The government can revoke visas for legitimate immigration violations, but it’s not allowed to use immigration machinery as a pretext to punish political expression. That’s exactly what they are doing. It looks like the courts will eventually put an end to this [0] but it won’t reverse the damage that’s already been done. I’m g…

Here’s a video of what this guy was involved in (to my best knowledge): https://statements.cornell.edu/2024/20241019-career-fair-dis... I’m a First Amendment absolutist and AFAIK foreign students can protest, but this video shows to me it probably crosses the line into something else. Exactly what, I have no opinion.

The video shows them get past security / push past security, then protest / disrupt the career fair.

Your framing had me expecting a degree of mayhem and violence that was absent here.

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

#578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EFF's letter offers more details and says that the subpoena did not contain a gag order: https://www.eff.org/files/2026/04/13/eff_letter_re_google_no...

Well it did contain a request to not notify according to that same letter. I suppose that brings up several questions. 1. Does that mean the same thing in the ToS? 2. How valid are these requests?

Google acknowledges that they should have given notice per their own policy and that they violated it. In this case, they said that they violated it because they had failed to respond to the subpoena within ICE's 10-day deadline:

> On November 20, 2025, Google, through outside counsel, explained to the undersigned why Google did not give Thomas-Johnson advanced notice as promised. Google’s explanation shows the problem is systematic: Sometimes when Google does not fulfill a subpoena by the government’s artificial deadline, Google fulfills the subpoena and provides notice to a user on the same day to minimize delay for an overdue production. Google calls this “simultaneous notice.” But this kind of simultaneous notice strips users of their ability to challenge the validity of the subpoena before it is fulfilled.

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

#579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the First Amendment applies to all people within the territory of the United States equally. US law does not limit the political speech of non-citizens present on visas.

Do you feel that way about the second amendment too? Just curious if we’re picking and choosing what visitors can legally do. What if SCOTUS said that people means citizens and not visitors for guns, don’t you think that would apply to visa, immigrants, or visitors as well?

I think in the second amendment "the people" are quite clearly the citizens so they can secure their own "free" state. Where the first amendment is about limiting what the government can do so they can't make laws against free speech.

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

#580
post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I apply that principle. To be honest, it's that plus the fact that this article omits things we already know. It wasn't just that he "attended a pro-Palestine protest at Cornell University," they shut down a jobs fair. I went to a liberal college too, I know that a lot of these "peaceful" protests are actually quite forceful and infringe on others' rights more than anyone ever reports. My bias is in the other di…

> because they're making us pay taxes to a small country overseas. I read recently that 80% of the money the US commits to Israel has to be spent in the United States. Similar to the US funding Ukraine it is largely just buying from domestic US manufacturers or old stockpiles. It's a sort of stimulus program that funds the US military industrial complex and prop up allies. There was law passed that 100% of foreign mi…

Think of it as us giving them weapons for free, either way we're paying for it so their taxes don't have to. Egypt and Jordan's aid are for Israel's protection too. The only thing that has ever rivaled this was Ukraine aid, which wasn't bipartisan as we've seen.
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