CfA's July 17, 2020 Newsletter

Our Latest Work:

• CfA Calls on Pennsylvania Officials to Terminate Contract with Anti-Abortion Group For Wasting Millions of Taxpayer Dollars, Violating Pennsylvania Law: This week, CfA sent a letter to Pennsylvania officials requesting they investigate and terminate the state’s contract with Real Alternatives (RA), a non-profit organization that receives state funding to run Pennsylvania’s Alternative to Abortion Services Program (AASP).
  • The letter details the ways RA has failed to fulfill its duty to Pennsylvania families to provide adequate pregnancy and parenting services, while simultaneously inappropriately skimming money intended for service providers, and misappropriating public funding earmarked for certain operational expenses. (Press Release, Letter)
• Inside Google’s Mysterious Montana Retreat: On Monday, the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), revealed that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt apparently for years has hosted an annual conference that brings together policy analysts, entertainers, executives, and other influential individuals at the private Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana. (Report)
  • The report was covered by Vox, whose coverage contains comments from several of the event attendees identified by TTP.
• CfA Requests FTC Investigation into PrivacyWall for Using Google Ads to Lure Citizens into Paying to Register to Vote: On Wednesday,  CfA and TTP sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting that the agency investigate PrivacyWall and its chief executive, Jonathan Wu, for perpetrating a number of scams on consumers. (Press Release, Letter)
  • PrivacyWall was identified by TTP's June 29 report on scam ads in Google search results for information about voting. Certain Google ads from PrivacyWall led users to a form that ultimately prompted visitors to pay a fee of $69, or $129 for “rush delivery” to register to vote.
  CfA Calls on FTC to Investigate Rooftop Solar Companies for Relying on Deceptive Lead Generators: On Thursday, CfA sent a letter to the FTC requesting they open an investigation into rooftop solar companies and the lead generators the companies use to find customers. Home solar providers have been caught running misleading Facebook ads implying that new solar customers are eligible for stimulus money related to the coronavirus. (Press Release, Letter)
  • This issue is all the more urgent as the two largest rooftop solar companies, Sunrun and Vivint, recently announced plans to merge.

What We're Reading:

• Watchdog group calls on Wolf, state officials to ‘terminate’ contract with anti-abortion organization: "In a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf, Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Department of Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller, the group, the Campaign for Accountability, says Real Alternatives has misappropriated public funds and exploited a state program." (Pennsylvania Capital Star, July 17)
• Tech firms like Facebook must restrict data sent from EU to US, court rules: "Tech companies like Facebook could be prevented from sending data back to the US, after the latest ruling in a long-running European legal saga found that there are not enough protections against snooping by US intelligence agencies." (The Guardian, July 16)
• “Outright Lies”: Voting Misinformation Flourishes on Facebook: "While the social media giant says it opposes voter suppression, the data shows a stark picture: Nearly half of all top-performing posts that mentioned voting by mail were false or misleading." (ProPublica, July 16)

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