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If you want to continue doing Horrible Thing X, you must ensure you invest not only in Horrible Thing X but in the most visible opposition to Horrible Thing X. Ideally, that opposition should owe its continued existence to you and to Horrible Thing X.
So, for example, if you’re a surveillance capitalist like Google, you should ensure that Mozilla owes its existence to you and to surveillance capitalism by funding them with roughly half a billion dollars every year. Which, thankfully, Google being the smart and cunning people they are, they are already doing.
(This has so many advantages; it really is money well spent. For one, you can use it to argue that you’re not a monopoly – though, as recent rulings have shown, within limits. Then, you can have that champion of Definitely The Opposite Of Horrible Thing X advocate for self-regulation tactics like Do Not Track that stave off regulation for years, perhaps even a decade if you’re lucky. But that’s not all. You also gain a voice that can lobby softly for lack of regulation at institutions like the EU when your direct lobbying might be more suspect. Not to mention a honeypot that can attract people who actually care about the issues and keep them busy on projects you know won’t make a real difference. But, whatever you do, do train your future heads of public policy better so they don’t beg their friends at conferences they’re both speaking at to “go easier on us”, proclaiming “I don’t know why you’re holding to us such a higher standard, we’re just another Silicon Valley tech company.” Because those quiet parts should never be spoken out loud. Tsk, tsk.)