Jacksonville, FL - Today, Thomas More Society announced it secured the last of the data belonging to renowned pro-life leader, Gertrude “Trudy” Perez-Poveda, which had been held from her for nearly two years by big-tech giant, Google.

Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit on Mrs. Perez-Poveda's behalf against Google after the tech giant locked her out of her account nearly immediately after she had emailed her pro-life advocacy group, inviting them to join her for a Mass and prayer gathering outside a Jacksonville abortion facility.  

Google later informed her that its “Concerned Team” had “permanently disabled” her  account. Google also informed her, “It is not possible to access or transfer data in that email account.” This deplatforming prevented Mrs. Perez-Poveda from accessing over 11 years of stored emails, photographs, calendars, contacts, and personal data, which she had accumulated through her community work and personal life.

Recently, within days of a court-imposed settlement deadline in this lawsuit, all of Mrs. Perez-Poveda’s data suddenly became inexplicably accessible for the first time since this controversy began. An IT expert confirmed that something done on Google’s end allowed this to happen, one year and 10 months after Google first locked out Mrs. Perez-Poveda from the use of her own data.

“Google has dragged Trudy Perez-Poveda through a land of smoke and mirrors, apparently  because she was a pro-lifer who had the fortitude to stand up to Google and demand what belonged to her,” said Matt Heffron, Senior Counsel at Thomas More Society. “Google did not know who they were messing with when they decided to pick on Trudy. She was not going to let a big-tech behemoth shut down her life-saving mission to protect the unborn,” he said.

“It has been a bizarre journey but thanks to Trudy’s courage in standing up to Google and demanding what belonged to her, she got back what was rightfully hers.”

Since filing in July 2024, TMS repeatedly demanded the data back. Over time, by engaging third-party tech experts, she was able to retrieve some of her data in small quantities, independent of any assistance from Google. But the large bulk of her data had remained inaccessible.

Putting Trudy through several twists and turns, Google claimed that certain tools existed online to allow her to retrieve the remaining data despite tech experts proving those tools to be unworkable. At another point, Google even falsely claimed the data never had been withheld from her at all.

“Thanks to the support from Thomas More Society, I was able to regain access to more than a decade worth of personal data and continue my mission to save lives in our Jacksonville community. Big tech companies cannot be allowed to decide what speech is acceptable,” said Trudy Perez-Poveda.

Google never denied that Trudy’s data belongs entirely to her, per contract, and that Google had no claim to it whatsoever.

“The main goal of this lawsuit was to get Trudy’s data back and we accomplished that,” said Heffron. “The lawsuit also sought damages for what Google put Trudy through, and we had wanted to test Florida’s untried anti-censorship statute to that end. At this point, though, we decided it would be more efficient to refer the matter to the Florida Attorney General’s Office and to work with Florida legislators to strengthen gaps we discovered in the anti-censorship statute. With that in mind, we dismissed the remainder of the lawsuit.”

Read the Notice of Dismissal in Gertrude Perez-Poveda v. Google, LLC, John Doe agents and/or employees of Google, LLC., here.

Additional Information:

• Complaint (July 25, 2024)