In the fourth arena of fortifications the corporation learned to infiltrate and influence academic research and civil society advocacy in ways that softened or in some cases thwarted the examination of its practices. The Washington Post describes Google as a "master of Washington influence" and notes the subtlety with which the firm grasps and directs its own narrative. Schmidt was hands-on in this work as well. Already a board member of the New America Foundation, a public-policy think tank that played an influential role in shaping the Obama administration’s approach to economic issues, he assumed the chairmanship in 2013 with a personal donation of $1 million, a significant percentage of its $12.9 million annual budget that year. Between 1999 and 2016, when Schmidt left the board, the foundation received $21 million from a combination of Google, Schmidt, and Schmidt’s family foundation.

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 401