The origins of this article are posted at the Wall Street Journal, but is behind a paywall. This summation at NY Mag hits the high points however, and this article at Fox Business has a bit more of a deep dive. The gist of research shows that Google has paid professors in academia, from Harvard to Berkeley, in order to harvest favorable information that props up its lobbying desires, and that relationship is not often exposed when the information is presented.



Google has paid professors whose papers, for instance, declared that the collection of consumer data was a fair exchange for its free services; that the company didn’t use its market dominance to improperly steer users to Google’s commercial sites or its advertisers; and that it hasn’t unfairly quashed competitors. Several papers argued that Google’s search engine should be allowed to link to books and other intellectual property that authors and publishers say should be paid for — a group that includes News Corp, which owns the Journal. News Corp formally complained to European regulators about Google’s handling of news articles in search results.

Google has funded roughly 100 academic papers on public-policy matters since 2009, according to a Journal analysis of data compiled by the Campaign for Accountability, an advocacy group that has campaigned against Google and receives funds from Google’s rivals, including Oracle Corp. Most mentioned Google’s funding.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Google Paying Professors for Academic Influence?