LOST营N烛HE烫LOUD.PDFVIP

LOSTINTHECLOUD GOOGLEANDTHEUSGOVERNMENT ExecutiveSummary An ambitious quest for inluence with the US government is starting to pay off for search giant Google,aConsumerWatchdoginvestigationhasfound. OneofthemostvisiblesignsofGoogle’scloutisthe hangars at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Moffett Airield, near Google’s world headquarters, where a leet of jets and helicopters standsreadytoferrythecompany’stopexecutivesnear or far, for business or pleasure.When a deal between NASA and top Google executives to use the base was irstdisclosedin2007,itcalledforonlyfourjetstouse thebase. Butnewlyreleasedgovernmentrecordsshowthat theGoogleexecutiveleethasnowgrowntosixjetsand two helicopters, while at least 40 Google employees holdsecuritybadgesatthebaseandalloftheplanesare suppliedwithDepartmentofDefensejetfuel. While the deal was originally struck between GoogleandNASA in the nameofscientiicresearchby the Google leet, NASA documents show that precious littleresearchhasoccurred.Accordingtoasetofemails obtained by freelance journalist and FOI specialist Russell Carollo, a ighter jet bought by Google executives in 2008 to perform the research was still beingreviewedforairworthinessinmid2010. Meanwhile,lightrecordsshowthattheother jets parkedbyGoogleexecutivesattheNASAieldareoften used for vacations or schmoozing, including at least Lost in the Cloud: Google and the US Government January 2011 2 three wintertime trips to the Caribbean and a trip by GooglechiefexecutiveEricSchmidttotheCannesFilm Festival. InrecentyearsGooglehaslandedcontractswithat least 25 federal agencies, contracting databases show. While the value of those contracts is currently only a little over $40 million, Google has made numerous inroads in Washington since the arrival of the Obama administration in 2008, posi