# DHS Under Fire for Seeking Critic's Data via Google A Canadian man is suing **Markwayne Mullin**, the secretary of **DHS**, after the agency issued a customs summons to **Google** seeking his location data, activity logs, and other identifying information. The request followed the man's online criticism of the Trump administration in the wake of the killings of **Renee Good** and **Alex Pretti** by federal immigration agents. ## Questionable Justification Lawyers for the man, who remains unnamed, are particularly alarmed because he hasn't entered the United States in over a decade. **Michael Perloff**, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, argues that the government is exploiting the location of major tech companies within the U.S. to access information that would otherwise be outside its jurisdiction. "It’s using that geographic fact to get information that otherwise would be totally outside of its jurisdiction,” he says. “I mean, we’re talking about the physical movements of a person who lives in Canada.” ## Customs Summons Under Scrutiny The **DHS** utilized a customs summons, typically reserved for investigating import-related issues and collecting customs duties. According to **Chris Duncan**, a former assistant chief counsel for US Customs and Border Protection, these summonses are intended for matters concerning "the correctness of an entry, the liability of a person for duties, taxes, and fees, you know, compliance with basic customs laws." The summons in question requested records related to "History of Account Suspensions or Violations of Terms due to Threatening or Harassing Language." The man's legal team argues that his posts, while passionate, did not contain threats or incite violence. ## Google's Response Despite a request in the summons for indefinite non-disclosure, **Google** alerted the man about the request on February 9th. The man initially dismissed the notification as a scam before realizing its authenticity. ## Broader Concerns This incident is part of a larger pattern of **DHS** using administrative subpoenas to potentially unmask individuals critical of the agency. The New York Times reported in February that **Google**, **Reddit**, **Discord**, and **Meta** had received hundreds of such subpoenas in the preceding six months. In March, US congressmembers requested data from tech companies regarding these requests, but it remains unclear whether they received a response. The **Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)** has also sued **DHS** and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain records related to the issuance of these subpoenas. ## History of Controversy **WIRED** previously reported that customs summons were issued over 170,000 times between 2016 and mid-August 2022, with big tech firms and telecommunications companies being the most frequent recipients. In 2017, **Twitter** (now **X**) even filed a lawsuit against **DHS** over a similar summons, which was later withdrawn.