Transcription
Hey everybody. How would you feel if the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security copied the entire contents of your email account or your phone? If the answer is not good, you need to watch this.
I'm Liz Oyer, the former pardon attorney for the Department of Justice. There are two stories I want to share that are cautionary tales for all of us.
The first is about a 67-year-old retiree named John who lives in Pennsylvania. In October, John read a news story about DHS's efforts to deport an Afghan refugee who feared he'd be killed by the Taliban if he returned to Afghanistan. John was worried about the man, so he picked up his computer, opened Gmail, and typed out an email to the prosecutor on the case urging him to show compassion. He wrote, "Apply principles of common sense and decency."
A few hours later, while watching TV with his wife, John got an email from Google informing him that the Department of Homeland Security had served a subpoena requiring Google to turn over the entire contents of John's account to DHS. DHS used something called an administrative subpoena, which does not require approval by a court. This was only the beginning for John. Two weeks later, DHS agents showed up at his door to question him, all because of the email he wrote.
The second story is about a Washington Post reporter named Hannah Nathansson, who covers the federal government. After Doge started wreaking havoc on government agencies, over 1,000 federal employees reached out to Hannah to share their stories confidentially, which is not a crime. Then, in January, the FBI showed up at Hannah's home with a warrant to seize her computers and her phone. And here's the craziest part. The warrant actually authorized the FBI to force Hannah to unlock the devices with biometrics, meaning her face or her fingerprint, so they could access the contents.
So, what can we do to protect ourselves? Well, I'm not a tech expert, but in Hannah's case, it turns out her iPhone was in lockdown mode, which is a setting that prevented the FBI from accessing her data with their normal tools. Another option is to disable biometrics and use a PIN instead. Law enforcement cannot require you to turn over your password.
John's situation is tougher. Companies like Google are actually not even required to tell you if they get a subpoena for your account. In John's case, the subpoena asked Google not to tell him, but they did so anyway. Different companies have different policies on this, which you can research. If you do get notice of a subpoena, contact a lawyer right away. There are ways to challenge it in court, but it's important to act quickly. In John's case, the ACLU is helping him and hopefully they will get a good result that will benefit all of us who value privacy and free speech.