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Comment by user3939382 | Hacker News Reader

I didn’t specify a time frame or the specific companies. I’ve provided enough evidence to indicate this is true.

The larger point is also unequivocally proved: the EFF has massive conflicts of interest that it apparently thinks are fine, which makes it untrustworthy. If they accepted $100,000 from Google that would be just as much of a problem — it’s a huge amount of money. Extrapolating out from the sample data that’s easy to find, it does look like millions. If you want to conduct some in-depth research to prove that wrong please do, I’d be interested to see a full qualification for their horrible conflict of interest.

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> I’ve provided enough evidence to indicate this is true.

Have you? You've provided evidence for less than half a million, yet you claim its at least $2M.

I do agree IMO they really shouldn't accept much money but you're claiming you've shared proof they've received multiple millions and yet you've only shared proof for less than half of that.

Yes, that amount in that time frame and from only those companies extrapolates out to millions over a larger time frame and with any companies in that category. Again, if anyone is really concerned they’re free to conduct detailed research. I feel extrapolating is reasonable enough to make a forum comment.

Showing that they've accepted a few hundred thousand is far short of showing they've accepted millions. For the facts presented all we know was there were only three years these companies made any donations to the EFF.

If I gave someone $1 today, $10 the next day, and $100 the day after, would you then assume at the end of the year I gave the person hundreds of millions of dollars? Clearly I'm increasing this by 10x every day, so obviously this should continue in perpituity, right? Or maybe these were three one-off things, and it would take further analysis to determine I only actually made these three contributions?

I don't know the EFF took millions from Facebook and Google. They might have! But the data given doesn't prove it, and extrapolating it is only a little less crazy than the extrapolation above. There's guesses, and there's facts.

Since you seem so invested in this here’s another source: https://thebaffler.com/salvos/all-effd-up-levine

“ Over the past years, EFF has taken millions in funds from Google and Facebook via straight donations and controversial court payouts that many see as under-the-radar contributions. Hell, Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s foundation gave EFF at least $1.2 million.” You can argue with that guy about his sources too. He’s also making an even bigger claim since I wasn’t limiting my assessment to those two companies.

I went through every 990 from the Sergey Brin Family Foundation and see no donations to the EFF in any of them (from 2014-2019).

Happen to know of a source for Yasha's claim?

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/472...

I do not, although he might be willing to share it. I did, however, write an email to EFF requesting records that could shed some light on the full extent of their conflicts of interest. I'm not expecting them to reply with anything useful but I guess there's a chance.

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