Thursday, February 10, 2022

Congress proposed bills could cost your business time and money by:

Take action to support small business

Proposed legislation would have unintended consequences for your business and could disrupt many of the digital tools you rely on every day.

Send a message to your members of Congress – tell them you don’t want to lose the digital tools that save your business time and money. It’ll take less than two minutes of your time.

Your message

SUBJECT

Don't disrupt my business' digital tools

MESSAGE

I am writing to you because I’m concerned about the unintended consequences that tech breakup bills could have for my business.
  I’m asking you to consider how tech breakup bills could adversely affect businesses like mine, and please vote NO on any bill that could break our favorite tech products.

I use digital tools to help my business run more efficiently and reach more customers, saving my business time and money.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for many American businesses, including mine. Digital tools have helped my business to adapt and recover – and this isn’t the time for Congress to pass new laws that would make it harder for businesses to operate.

Your information

Please note congressional offices require the following information.

  • Title

If passed, Congress’s proposed bills could cost your business time and money by:

Making it harder for customers to find you

if your business listing (including your phone number, address, and business hours) no longer appears on Google Search and Maps.

Making your digital marketing less effective

if Google Ads products are disconnected from each other and from Google Analytics.

Hurting your productivity

if Gmail, Docs, and Calendar are split up and they no longer work together seamlessly.

Stay informed

We’re working to share concerns with members of Congress about how these bills could impact businesses like yours.

If you’re interested in learning more about these bills and other potential legislation, their impact on your business, and what you can do about it, we invite you to sign up to stay informed.

By clicking this button I consent that Google can contact me about legislative and regulatory issues, events, and advocacy opportunities related to my business.

FAQ

What do these bills do?

If passed, these bills could ban Google and other leading technology companies from offering services that your business uses to run your operations and to reach customers online.

That could mean your business listing (including your phone number, address, and business hours) may no longer be allowed to appear on Google Search and Maps, making it more difficult for customers to find you. It could mean Google Ads products are no longer allowed to be integrated, making your digital marketing less effective. And it could mean Gmail, Docs, and Calendar are no longer allowed to work together seamlessly, harming your productivity. All this could cost your business time and money.

How could the proposed tech breakup bills affect popular consumer products?

These bills could force Google to disable features that help consumers find information and get things done.

For example:

  • When you search for an address, we may not be able to show you directions from Google Maps in your results.
  • When you search for local businesses, Google Search and Maps may be prohibited from highlighting information like hours of operation, contact information, directions and reviews.
  • Google Workspace tools like Gmail, Calendar and Drive may no longer be allowed to work seamlessly together.

Could Congress’s proposed tech breakup bills make my data less private?

Unfortunately, they could.

These bills could force Google to share sensitive data that you store in our products with unknown companies in ways that could compromise your and your customers' privacy.

Could Congress’s proposed tech breakup bills make the internet less safe?

Unfortunately, they could.

The bills could hamper our ability to integrate automated security features in our products. For example, we might be prevented from automatically including our SafeBrowsing service and spam filters in Chrome and Gmail to block pop-ups, viruses, scams and malware.

What are other people saying about this legislation?

Experts say these bills could be damaging.

We’re not alone in raising concerns about the unintended consequences of these bills. Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Connected Commerce Council, U.S. Black Chambers, Latino Coalition, Chamber of Progress, Asia/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship, and more have voiced concern that these bills could harm consumers, small businesses, and startups, and threaten American technological competitiveness.

Does Google support any regulation?

Yes.

There are important discussions taking place about creating new rules for the digital economy. We believe that updating technology regulations in areas like privacy, AI, and child safety could provide real benefits for businesses and consumers. But breaking our products wouldn’t address those issues. Instead, they would make popular consumer products less helpful, degrade digital tools that small businesses use to reach customers, expose Americans to new privacy and security risks, and – because they would impose one set of rules on American companies while largely giving a pass to foreign companies – weaken U.S. technological leadership. We will continue to urge Congress to consider the unintended consequences of these bills before taking action.

What else is Google saying about the bills?

You can read more about our concerns here.