ollecting personal information on children. The research was undertaken by the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California at Berkeley. Lobbying Efforts to Influence Regulations Because telecommunication policies are heavily regulated, all large mobile, cable TV, and landline providers spend sizeable amounts of money on court cases and on lobbyists to attempt to influence lawmakers and regulatory agencies. Lobbying to Influence Government Regulators Telecommunications and wireless companies are heavily regulated at the federal, state and local levels. All providers spend time and money on lobbying efforts to influence these regulations. They contribute to candidates from both the Democratic and Republican Parties and hire lobbyists to communicate their positions directly with government officials. The issues these organizations lobby for include mergers, patents, copyrights, auto safety, self-driving cars, privacy, online www.TechnicalPDF.com advertising, attachments to telephone poles, and permission for installation of cellular antennas and gear. Government regulations impact all phases of telecommunications, which is why almost all large providers such as AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, and Verizon, as well as medium-sized and small providers spend money on lobbyists every year. According to the Federal Election Committee Commission, in the period between January 1, 2017, and April 26, 2018, Comcast spent $23 million dollars on lobbying at the federal level. Moreover, lobbying expenditures spike when there are issues providers consider critical. For example, when AT&T offered to purchase Time Warner to gain their cache of movies and television content, they lobbied the federal government for permission for the merger. Thus, it's likely that their lobbying expenses spiked. Lobbying is not confined to telecommunications organizations. Large technology organizations and social networks expend large efforts on lobbying. Facebook and Alphabet's Google, which are both facing the specter of r