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This is an irresponsible claim if not backed up with a citation. Further, I happen to monitor corporate funding to nonprofits (including the EFF) and public re

This is an irresponsible claim if not backed up with a citation. Further, I happen to monitor corporate funding to nonprofits (including the EFF) and public reporting suggests EFF only received $7500 from Google in 2018 and $25K from Facebook. Whereas Center for Democracy and Technology, which was founded by the former Executive Director of the EFF in 1994, received $430K and $500K, respectively. See https://news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-data-security/facebook-google-donate-heavily-to-privacy-advocacy-groups https://news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-data-security/face...

user3939382 5y ago
“ Google gave the Electronic Frontier Foundation $75,000 in calendar year 2017, $15,500 in calendar year 2016, and $325,000 in calendar year 2015, according tax forms, annual reports, and interviews with the nonprofit.” Add up all the money they’ve accepted from these types of companies over the last 10 years. They shouldn’t be accepting $1 from Google.
- math_and_stuff 5y ago
  All of the figures from said article add up to EFF receiving a total of $478K from Facebook and Google over four calendar years (2015 through 2018). Of course I agree that these orgs shouldn't accept money from tech giants, but any critique should be done accurately with citations.
  - user3939382 5y ago
    I don't think forum posts require citations, especially when they're correct. This isn't a peer-reviewed paper, it's a forum comment.
    - vel0city 5y ago
      > especially when they're correct But that's the thing, its not correct. You stated the EFF has accepted millions from Facebook and Google, as in multiple millions of dollars. $478k is significantly less than multiple millions. Its over a million dollars away from being correct.
      - user3939382 5y ago
        I didn’t specify a time frame or the specific companies. I’ve provided enough evidence to indicate this is true. The larger point is also unequivocally proved: the EFF has massive conflicts of interest that it apparently thinks are fine, which makes it untrustworthy. If they accepted $100,000 from Google that would be just as much of a problem — it’s a huge amount of money. Extrapolating out from the sample data that’s easy to find, it does look like millions. If you want to conduct some in-depth research to prove that wrong please do, I’d be interested to see a full qualification for their horrible conflict of interest.
        vel0city 5y ago
        > I’ve provided enough evidence to indicate this is true. Have you? You've provided evidence for less than half a million, yet you claim its at least $2M. I do agree IMO they really shouldn't accept much money but you're claiming you've shared proof they've received multiple millions and yet you've only shared proof for less than half of that.
        user3939382 5y ago
        Yes, that amount in that time frame and from only those companies extrapolates out to millions over a larger time frame and with any companies in that category. Again, if anyone is really concerned they’re free to conduct detailed research. I feel extrapolating is reasonable enough to make a forum comment.
        vel0city 5y ago
        Showing that they've accepted a few hundred thousand is far short of showing they've accepted millions. For the facts presented all we know was there were only three years these companies made any donations to the EFF. If I gave someone $1 today, $10 the next day, and $100 the day after, would you then assume at the end of the year I gave the person hundreds of millions of dollars? Clearly I'm increasing this by 10x every day, so obviously this should continue in perpituity, right? Or maybe these were three one-off things, and it would take further analysis to determine I only actually made these three contributions? I don't know the EFF took millions from Facebook and Google. They might have! But the data given doesn't prove it, and extrapolating it is only a little less crazy than the extrapolation above. There's guesses, and there's facts.

user3939382 5y ago

“ Google gave the Electronic Frontier Foundation $75,000 in calendar year 2017, $15,500 in calendar year 2016, and $325,000 in calendar year 2015, according tax forms, annual reports, and interviews with the nonprofit.” Add up all the money they’ve accepted from these types of companies over the last 10 years. They shouldn’t be accepting $1 from Google.

math_and_stuff 5y ago
All of the figures from said article add up to EFF receiving a total of $478K from Facebook and Google over four calendar years (2015 through 2018). Of course I agree that these orgs shouldn't accept money from tech giants, but any critique should be done accurately with citations.
- user3939382 5y ago
  I don't think forum posts require citations, especially when they're correct. This isn't a peer-reviewed paper, it's a forum comment.
  - vel0city 5y ago
    > especially when they're correct But that's the thing, its not correct. You stated the EFF has accepted millions from Facebook and Google, as in multiple millions of dollars. $478k is significantly less than multiple millions. Its over a million dollars away from being correct.
    - user3939382 5y ago
      I didn’t specify a time frame or the specific companies. I’ve provided enough evidence to indicate this is true. The larger point is also unequivocally proved: the EFF has massive conflicts of interest that it apparently thinks are fine, which makes it untrustworthy. If they accepted $100,000 from Google that would be just as much of a problem — it’s a huge amount of money. Extrapolating out from the sample data that’s easy to find, it does look like millions. If you want to conduct some in-depth research to prove that wrong please do, I’d be interested to see a full qualification for their horrible conflict of interest.
      - vel0city 5y ago
        > I’ve provided enough evidence to indicate this is true. Have you? You've provided evidence for less than half a million, yet you claim its at least $2M. I do agree IMO they really shouldn't accept much money but you're claiming you've shared proof they've received multiple millions and yet you've only shared proof for less than half of that.
        user3939382 5y ago
        Yes, that amount in that time frame and from only those companies extrapolates out to millions over a larger time frame and with any companies in that category. Again, if anyone is really concerned they’re free to conduct detailed research. I feel extrapolating is reasonable enough to make a forum comment.
        vel0city 5y ago
        Showing that they've accepted a few hundred thousand is far short of showing they've accepted millions. For the facts presented all we know was there were only three years these companies made any donations to the EFF. If I gave someone $1 today, $10 the next day, and $100 the day after, would you then assume at the end of the year I gave the person hundreds of millions of dollars? Clearly I'm increasing this by 10x every day, so obviously this should continue in perpituity, right? Or maybe these were three one-off things, and it would take further analysis to determine I only actually made these three contributions? I don't know the EFF took millions from Facebook and Google. They might have! But the data given doesn't prove it, and extrapolating it is only a little less crazy than the extrapolation above. There's guesses, and there's facts.