As Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood enters his second legal entanglement with tech giant Google Company, campaign contribution documents on the Mississippi Secretary of State’s website show Hood has received thousands of dollars in from other entertainment and tech companies since 2011.
According to the documents, companies with vested interests in intellectual property and copyright law — including 21st Century Fox America, Inc., Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. and the Recording Industry Association of America — have each contributed at least $1,000 to Hood’s campaigns between 2011 and 2015. Additionally, tech companies including Facebook and Yahoo — both competitors with Google — have also contributed money.
According to Hood’s campaign contribution documents, the Recording Industry Association of America — which has board members with ties to Disney, Sony, Warner Brothers, Universal Studios and other entertainment companies — contributed $1,000 each in 2011, 2013 and 2015. 21st Century Fox contributed $1,000 in 2013 and 2015, and Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. contributed $1,000 in 2015. Facebook, Inc. contributed $1,000 each in 2011 and 2015, and Yahoo, Inc. contributed $1,000 in 2011.
Records indicate Google did not contribute to Hood’s campaigns in that time period.
Corporations are prohibited from contributing more than $1,000 per year to a candidate, directly or through a campaign committee, according to information sent from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office.
The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Earlier this month, Hood filed a lawsuit against Google in Lowndes County Chancery Court, alleging the internet company has been collecting data from accounts of Mississippi school children for advertising purposes in violation of both the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act and the K-12 School Service Provider Pledge to Safeguard Student Privacy. The suit claims Google mined data from profiles on its education platform, G Suite for Education (GSFE) and used the data to target specific advertisements at students.
Google declined to comment on the case.
Hood and Google have been embroiled in legal battles before. In October 2014, Hood issued Google a subpoena claiming the company may have violated the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act and sought information on the company’s advertising practices and its efforts to police the Google search engine for dangerous or inappropriate content.
In December 2014, Google sued Hood in federal court alleging his subpoena violated the First and Fourth amendment rights of both Google and its users. Last April, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Hood’s investigation was legal.
Local schools weigh in on GSFE
Local schools have no current plans to change their tech policies following the lawsuit, which Hood filed after testing several Mississippi students’ GSFE profiles, including at least one student profile at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science in Columbus.
MSMS Executive Director Germain McConnell confirmed last week that MSMS students use GSFE but said the school is not involved in Hood’s investigation or the lawsuit.
“All I can say is we do use (Google) Suite,” McConnell said. “This is not something we initiated. It was something that was initiated by the AG’s office and they would need to comment further.”
He added the school does not plan to stop using GSFE or other Google services.
GSFE is an educational platform offering services like Gmail, Drive, Sites, Contacts and Apps Vault to teachers and K-12 students. The Pledge to Safeguard Student Privacy, which Google signed in 2015, promises companies that sign it will not use student profile data to target advertisements at students that age.
Columbus Municipal School District Superintendent Philip Hickman said CMSD does not use GSFE and that students do not have individual Google accounts. Lowndes County School District Assistant Superintendent Robin Ballard said though LCSD students and teachers use GSFE, there is no evidence to suggest Google’s advertisers had specifically targeted students because they don’t have individual profiles. Instead, teachers choose which of the program’s applications to use.
“They have email through our school district, so they don’t have a login profile (on Google),” Ballard said.
“When I talked with (LCSD Network Manager Roger Gaudet) … I asked him if there were any indications that there had been any mining of info, and he said no,” she later added.
At this time, the district has no plans to stop using the platform, Ballard said, but she added that may change as Hood’s lawsuit unfolds.
Though a press release from Hood’s office estimated that more than half Mississippi schools currently use Google products, Mississippi Department of Education spokesperson Patrice Guilfoyle said MDE does not keep track of which school districts use GSFE and that it’s up to individual districts whether to keep using the platform.
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