SEATTLE — When the Trump administration’s Justice Department sought to ferret out leakers, it turned to the tech giants where so much of our digital life is stashed.
Tech giants have to hand over your data when federal investigators ask. Here’s why.
Apple, Microsoft and Google receive tens of thousands of requests each year to provide data about their customers, and often the companies are barred from notifying them
That information — which email addresses and phone numbers we use and when we use them — can be crucial to piecing together a leak in a probe.
And there is little the tech giants can do but comply. Because these subpoenas can come with a gag order, the companies were precluded from notifying customers that information was turned over. The data gathering became public only after those orders expired.
Here’s what you need to know.

