Transparency

Our Principles and Standards of Business Conduct

At Google, we believe it is important to have a voice in the political process to ensure the Internet remains a powerful engine for growth and innovation. Our engagement with policymakers and regulators is guided by a commitment to ensuring our participation is always open, transparent and clear to our users, shareholders, and the public.

Public Policy Engagement

We believe in the empowering and democratizing effect of putting information in the hands of everyone, everywhere. We started over two decades ago with the goal of organizing the world’s information and making it universally useful and accessible. Since then, the Internet has grown and evolved more than anyone could have imagined, and yet there are still many information challenges in the world today. We champion public policy and regulatory approaches that ensures the Internet continues to be a vehicle of growth and innovation serving the widest range of people possible.

Learn more about the key issues steering our public policy work below:

  • Artificial Intelligence

    We are making long-term investments in artificial intelligence for the opportunities and benefits it can bring to our products and many other sectors, including exciting advances in health and science. To realize the full potential of AI and emerging technologies, Google supports flexible policies that drive innovation while providing appropriate safeguards, and calls on governments to support open research that advances the state of the art and investigates novel applications and thoughtful development. We have published a set of AI Principles that guide responsible AI development and use at the company. Google is committed to open research and development, and broadening the benefits of AI throughout society.

  • Competition

    Products like Search, Gmail and Maps help Americans every day. Survey research found that these services provide thousands of dollars a year in value to the average American. We provide these tools to everyone for free. We operate across many highly competitive sectors where prices are free or falling and products are constantly innovating and improving. Our products increase choice and expand competition. They level the playing field for small businesses everywhere—enabling them to sell their products, find customers, reduce their costs and, in difficult times, get back on their feet. Antitrust helps consumers by protecting competition, which helps keep prices low, choices abundant, and product quality high. In our earliest days, we said that we were committed to building technology that significantly benefited the lives of people around the world. We still are.

  • Connectivity

    Google believes that abundant broadband facilitates free expression, increases opportunities for everyone with internet access and drives investment and innovation. The coronavirus pandemic has shined a light on the importance of broadband access, adoption, and digital skills-building, as distance learning, telehealth and telework have become even more urgent national imperatives. Moreover, it is essential that we bridge the digital divide by ensuring abundant broadband to rural and urban areas, the young and old, Native Americans, and those with disabilities, regardless of economic status.

    We also support legislative and regulatory efforts that preserve and protect an open internet, competition, consumer choice, creativity, innovation and free expression. This includes reform of federal, state and local regulations to remove barriers to broadband abundance. Google supports policies that ease barriers to deployment of terrestrial fiber, fixed and mobile wireless, and satellite broadband technologies. For wireless, it is especially important to make available additional licensed, lightly licensed, and unlicensed spectrum, with predictable rules for both exclusive and shared use that support diverse deployments.

  • Copyright

    Online platforms have significantly bolstered and nurtured innovation, free expression, and opened new opportunities for creators in the U.S., in part, because of the balance that exists in our copyright law. Google takes seriously our role in fighting piracy online, but also believes in the importance of maintaining and protecting flexible limitations to copyright, like fair use. We support copyright policies, like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbors, that provide rightsholders with effective ways to manage their rights, encourage innovation and creativity, protect consumers, and promote free expression.

  • Government Technology Modernization

    Google supports government agencies’ efforts to modernize and better secure government information technology systems. Evaluating and updating IT policies and regulations will be critical to allowing government agencies to realize the enhanced security, economies of scale, and cutting edge innovations provided by commercial cloud services and market leading technologies.

  • Intermediary Liability

    We support legal frameworks that safeguard open access to information and freedom of expression online and allow for responsible protections for consumers. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is one such framework. It has been foundational to the Internet and has allowed innovation to flourish by safeguarding the ability to create and share content, while supporting the ability of platforms and services of all sizes to responsibly address harmful content.

  • Patents

    The patent system is meant to promote the development of cutting-edge technologies by innovators. However, poor quality patents have the opposite effect, fueling abusive litigation and deterring further innovation. Google relies on a well-functioning patent system that grants reliable patent rights and supports balanced policies, legislation by Congress, and actions taken by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that promote patent quality and level the litigation playing field.

  • Privacy, Security & Data Use

    Google is committed to keeping our users’ data private and secure and enable users around the world to easily manage their privacy preferences. Regulation can protect individuals and communities from harm and misuse of data, improve security standards, and help maintain the trust that enables continued innovation and technology-driven benefits. We published a Framework for Responsible Data Protection Regulation to support our advocacy for federal privacy legislation.

    Google believes that government access laws must provide appropriate safeguards and protections for users. We offer detailed transparency reporting about government requests for user data, and we will continue working with stakeholders on frameworks that meet law enforcement needs without sacrificing due process, oversight, accountability, and user trust.

  • Workforce, Education and Opportunity

    At Google, our employees are one of our greatest assets - building innovative technology, growing our business, creating a positive working environment, and ensuring that we maintain the trust of our users. That is why we advocate for policies that allow them and their families to thrive both inside and outside of the office. We are also committed to ensuring technology creates opportunity for all Americans. Nearly two-thirds of all new jobs created since 2010 require digital skills. We work with nonprofit partners, policymakers, educators, and small businesses to ensure that Americans - particularly those in underserved communities - have access to the digital skills, training and resources they need to succeed.

Oversight and Compliance

Google’s Public Policy and Government Affairs team interacts with government and elected officials to explain our products and advocate for policies that promote innovation and the growth of the web. In the United States, this team and the activities they undertake are overseen by Karan Bhatia, Global Head of Google’s Government Affairs and Public Policy, who works directly with Google’s Senior Vice President for Global Affairs & Chief Legal Officer, Kent Walker, who reports to Google’s CEO.

Our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of our Board of Directors, comprised entirely of independent directors, regularly oversee the company’s corporate political activity. The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee reviews Google’s corporate political policies and activities, including expenditures made with corporate funds, Google’s NetPAC contributions, direct corporate contributions to state and local political campaigns, and our policy prohibiting trade associations and other organizations from using Google funds for political activities. In the advocacy space, the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee similarly annually reviews the lobbying activities of our Public Policy and Government Affairs Team.

Google's Office of Compliance and Integrity ensures compliance with all relevant political laws, including those governing lobbying activities and political contributions. The Office of Compliance and Integrity has implemented approval processes to ensure that Google’s political contributions and lobbying activities are undertaken, tracked, and disclosed in compliance with all applicable laws and rules.

Like all Google employees, our Public Policy and Government Affairs team follows Google’s Code of Conduct.

Political contributions

To date, Google has chosen not to use corporate resources to make independent expenditures or fund electioneering communications in support of, or opposition to a federal, state or local candidate’s election. In the future, if Google makes any direct independent expenditures, we would disclose such expenditures on this website and public campaign disclosure reports.

NetPAC

In 2006, we created Google NetPAC, a federal political action committee. NetPAC allows Google employees, through their personal funds, to join together and support candidates who share Google's positions on important issues.

The NetPAC board bases its giving decisions on a number of factors, most importantly, the policy stances of individual candidates, committees, and organizations. Other factors the NetPAC board considers:

  • demonstrating a commitment to an open Internet
  • serving as congressional leaders
  • serving on committees that work on legislation that is important to Google and our users
  • serving in states and congressional districts where Google has operations and employees

 The Google NetPAC Board of Directors —a bipartisan group of Google employees—makes all decisions about the contributions made by NetPAC. NetPAC complies with all federal election laws and discloses its donations on a monthly basis (see below, also publicly available at fec.gov). Additionally, NetPAC campaign contributions are never made in return for, or in anticipation of, an official act.

Contributions to Other Political Organizations

Where permissible by law Google makes direct corporate contributions to non-federal entities, including state and local candidates, committees, and organizations. These contributions are closely overseen by Google’s VP of Public Policy & Government Affairs, and are also reviewed by Google’s Ethics & Compliance team. These contributions are made to promote the interests of the company and the private political preferences of Google executives, directors and employees do not influence them in any way. Corporate campaign contributions are never made in return for, or in anticipation of, an official act.

You can view a detailed report of Google’s corporate political contributions to 527 organizations and state and local candidates, parties, and committees below. The report covers contributions made on or after January 1, 2016, and is updated quarterly:

National Committees and Organizations

Google has made corporate contributions to other national political committees and organizations:

Lobbying disclosure filings

Google regularly discloses information on our federal, state, and local lobbying activities. Our state and local lobbying disclosure reports are filed in each jurisdiction where we engage in lobbying activity. These disclosures are publicly available in all jurisdictions with public access portals. You can view our federal lobbying disclosures for the past several years below:

Memberships

Google belongs to a number of trade associations and other organizations, representing the broad range of issues that we care about. We also provide support to a number of independent third-party organizations whose work intersects with technology and Internet policy. We respect the independence and agency of trade associations and third parties to shape their own policy agenda, events and advocacy positions. Google’s sponsorship or collaboration with a third-party organization doesn’t mean that we endorse the organizations’ entire agenda, its events or advocacy positions nor the views of its leaders or members.

We prohibit trade associations and other tax-exempt organizations such as 501(c)4s to use dues or payments made by Google for political expenditures. We inform trade associations and third-party organizations of this policy by sending an electronic transmittal letter outlining the parameters of our prohibition with every payment we make. In order to ensure that organizations are abiding by our policy, Google also informs organizations that we reserve the right to terminate all payments immediately if we find that any portion of our contributions have been used for political expenditures during our annual review of our trade association and third party memberships and sponsorships.

Below is a listing of politically-engaged trade associations, independent third-party organizations and other tax-exempt groups that receive the most substantial contributions from Google’s U.S. Public Policy and Government Affairs team. We are committed to updating this information on a regular basis.

Trade Associations and Membership Organizations

Page last updated: February 2025