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Google, the search leader and main company of parent firm Alphabet ( GOOGL ), has outsized influence on government officials and public policies, says the nonprofit Google Transparency Project, which launched a searchable database on the issue on Tuesday. Google Transparency Project is a research initiative of Campaign for Accountability, which says that it “uses research, litigation and aggressive communications to expose how decisions made behind the doors of corporate boardrooms and government offices impact Americans’ lives.” The group said in a statement , “The project will compile and organize data from public sources and make it available for (public) review.” “Google knows more about us than we know about ourselves, but we know surprisingly little about Google and how it actually operates,” Anne Weismann, executive director of Campaign for Accountability, said in the statement. “Google has long been a strong advocate of transparency in government, business and even users’ private lives. It has not, however, been transparent about its own dealings with the government.” Weismann said that the new project “will shine a light on how Google influences our government officials, public policies and the way we live.” When contacted by IBD, an official with the nonprofit said that it does not reveal its funding sources. “We do not disclose our donors,” said Daniel Stevens, Campaign for Accountability deputy director. “I cannot comment on any aspect of it. For 501(c)(3) (nonprofits), we have to disclose it (funding sources) to the IRS, but it’s not something that has to be publicly available.” The group’s first data release says that 427 meetings involving Google’s employees or associated entities have occurred since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009 through October 2015 — more than one a week. The project also sees a “revolving door,” with some employees moving from Google to government jobs and vice versa. “The data set highlights the astonishing level of traffic between the two in both directions: 251 people either moved from Google into government or vice versa since Obama took office,” according to the group’s statement. Weismann served as chief counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and as deputy chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau, where she had responsibility for the bureau’s telecom matters. Alphabet stock was near 733, down more than 1% in afternoon trading on the stock market today . Scalper1 News
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