Few companies have more riding on proposed privacy legislation than Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. To try to steer the bill their way, the giant advertising technology companies spend millions of dollars to ... support highly influential think tanks and public interest groups that are helping shape the privacy debate, ostensibly as independent observers.
Bloomberg Law examined seven prominent nonprofit think tanks that work on privacy issues that received a total of $1.5 million over a 18-month period ending Dec. 31, 2018. The groups included such organizations as the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Future of Privacy Forum, and the Brookings Institution. The actual total is undoubtedly much higher—exact totals for contributions were difficult to pin down. The tech giants have “funded scores of nonprofits, including consumer and privacy groups, and academics,” said Jeffrey Chester, executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy, a public interest group that does not accept donations from Google or Facebook. Further, he says, their influence is strong. The companies have “opposed federal privacy laws and worked to weaken existing safeguards,” Chester said. Accepting donations from these “privacy-killing companies enable them to influence decisions by nonprofits, even subtly,” he said. Such organizations—which bristle at the notion that donations may affect their views—often have great sway over legislators, journalists, and the public due largely to their collective expertise on complex issues and inside knowledge of the legislative process. But they also often push positions that favor the goals of Google and Facebook, critics say. [...] Google and Facebook want a federal privacy law, as long as it doesn’t disrupt their data collection and advertising empires, critics say. Executives from both companies have testified that they want Congress to preempt states because of a potential surge in local laws—often with more privacy protections than a federal bill will garner. [...] The traditional way for companies to get what they want in Washington is pretty straightforward—hire a lobbyist. Indeed, spending in those areas by Google and Facebook has rocketed upward over the past decade. [...] Organizations like the Center for Democracy and Technology, which received at least $960,000 from the two companies in 2018, are often quoted in the media as unbiased third parties and influence how policy is developed in Washington as such, despite receiving the tech company funding. The group supports allowing tech giants to sell user data to third parties with limited restrictions, a position that is in line with technology companies that profit handsomely from such sales, but not so popular with consumers. The nonprofit organization received $430,000 from Google and $330,000 from Facebook in calendar year 2018, internal numbers voluntarily disclosed by the organization shows. The group in fiscal year 2018 also received at least $200,000 from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a nonprofit co-run by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. The digital advertising giants’ contributions were nearly one-sixth of its reported revenue for the year. [...] The Future of Privacy Forum, another nonprofit, is active in the federal privacy debate, hosting events that aim to influence lawmakers to push for a bill that preempts state privacy laws. [...] Its board of directors also includes Christopher Wolf, the nonprofit’s founder and board chairman. Wolf is of counsel to Hogan Lovells’ privacy and information management practice in Washington, D.C. Google is a client of the firm. [...] Future of Privacy Forum has pushed for a federal privacy law that would avoid conflicts with international data protection regimes, pre-empt state privacy standards, and create incentives for internal security and privacy accountability measures. These are positions are in line with what Facebook and Google want. [...] Access Now is an advocacy group fighting “for human rights in the digital age,” according to its website. The nonprofit aims to influence “decision makers in the halls of parliaments and corporate boardrooms, deliver digital security resources to users at risk, and mobilize global internet users to pressure the powerful.” Access Now received $100,000 from Google and $108,000 from Facebook in calendar year 2018... The group has pushed for a federal standard that would allow businesses to target consumers with online ads with proper user consent. It has also pushed for increased Federal Trade Commission privacy enforcement powers, including increased fining authority. Their recommendations generally track with industry positions apart from more FTC enforcement powers and fining authority. [...] Facebook and Google are also making contributions to Washington, D.C., think tanks that host a wide array of Beltway power players that have focused their work on privacy and data policy—including the Brookings Institution, The Cato Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute. [...] Brookings has hosted privacy events featuring an array of privacy advocates, lawmakers, federal enforcers, and international officials. The privacy advocates, however, are sometimes drawn from the groups Google and Facebook are backing. In a July 2018 privacy event, representatives from the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Internet Association, a Facebook and Google trade group, gave their thoughts on whether there should be an online privacy law. [...] The Cato Institute lists both tech giants among nine corporate sponsors. [...] The group, in an Aug. 2 op-ed, defended Facebook and Google’s advertising practices saying that the companies’ use of targeted advertising is “nothing new.” Cato in the op-ed pushed back on the notion that Facebook and Google see users as products, rather they see tech giants adding value to user data it collects. Cato has also hosted conferences featuring Facebook and Google employees. Its 2018 annual surveillance conference invested “representatives from Facebook, Google, and Mozilla, to discuss issues of surveillance and privacy”... AEI has been active in the federal privacy debate. The group’s in-house experts frequently appear before Congress to testify on privacy issues and writes op-eds often defending positions favorable to Facebook and Google. AEI doesn’t want to end advertising business models and has written articles in support of so-called “surveillance capitalism,” or the mass collection of consumer data. [...] “The landscape of advocacy groups in Washington is complicated, and large technology companies benefit from this confusion,” Daniel Stevens, executive director for the Campaign for Accountability, said. Enforcers and lawmakers “often have no idea that tech companies are ultimately behind the positions being put forth by innocuous-sounding advocacy groups.” The group, which warns of the negative impact of “shadowy nonprofit groups” on society... To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel R. Stoller in Washington at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Dunbar at [email protected] https://news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-data-security/facebook-google-donate-heavily-to-privacy-advocacy-groups -- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major commercial search engine. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/lt. Unsubscribe, change to digest mode, or change password by emailing [email protected].
