Canadian Trump Critic Sues to Stop Google from Sharing Personal Information with Department of Homeland Security
DHS unlawfully attempted to obtain personal information, including location and physical movements, of Canadian citizen
WASHINGTON – A Canadian critic of the Trump administration today sued Markwayne Mullin, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to stop the government from unlawfully obtaining his personal and location information from Google. DHS issued an administrative demand for these records shortly after the plaintiff posted online criticism of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis. The lawsuit, brought by the ACLU of the District of Columbia (ACLU-D.C.) and the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU NorCal), asks the court to rule that DHS is exceeding its legal power by demanding vast swaths of information about the critic’s life.
Plaintiff John Doe uses a pseudonym online and in this lawsuit to protect his privacy and family. Mr. Doe regularly posts strongly worded criticisms of President Trump and his policies on Mr. Doe’s social media accounts, including his account on X. His posts have collectively received well over 100,000 views.
On February 14, 2026, DHS issued an administrative summons to Google, where Mr. Doe has a personal email account linked to his X account. The summons demands that the company disclose vast swaths of information about Mr. Doe, including his name, where he lives, extensive information about his physical movements, and detailed records about the websites he visits and the people he communicates with online. Google has the capacity to collect this information and often does.
The complaint alleges that the summons is “a transparent gambit to chill speech the government doesn’t like.” DHS issued this summons on its own authority, without involvement from a court, citing a customs enforcement law. Mr. Doe, a Canadian citizen who resides in Canada, has not entered the U.S. since 2015. By targeting Mr. Doe and requesting a wide array of personal information, the summons far exceeds the legal authority cited by DHS.
“I have long admired the United States for its commitment to free speech,” Mr. Doe said. “Never in a million years did I think that, after criticizing the U.S. government, I would be targeted with a summons seeking to find out who I am, where I live, where I go, and what I read online. You don’t have to be from America to know that this is un-American.”
“Not satisfied with trying to suppress speech at home, the Trump administration is now targeting dissenters abroad,” said Michael Perloff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “A law designed to enforce customs does not give the government authority to target its critics around the world.”
“The Trump administration is illegally targeting online critics just because it doesn't like what they’re posting,” said Jake Snow, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California. “That sets a dangerous and terrifying precedent that threatens all of our fundamental rights.”
Mr. Doe is part of a growing number of social media critics targeted by DHS. The ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the ACLU have filed three other cases challenging similar abuses, but DHS withdrew those subpoenas before a judge could rule on their legality. Reporting from The New York Times and other outlets shows that since President Trump began his second term, social media platforms have received hundreds of similar government demands for information.
The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, goes a step further than previous legal challenges. It asks the court to both invalidate this summons and to make clear that the government may not use its customs enforcement authority to seek to identify and intimidate its critics.
The complaint in the case, Doe v. Mullin, may be found here.