lobbying efforts in the third quarter with the Internet giant spending its second most amount in one quarter while the social networking company spent its most ever for one quarter. Lobby disclosures filed this week with the House of Representatives showed Google spent $4.18 million, in the third quarter, a 76 percent increase from $ 2.38 million in the comparable 2011 period. For the first nine months Google's total lobbying spending hit a record $13.1 million. Google spent $9.68 million in all of 2011.

Facebook spent nearly a million dollars, $980,000, topping the $960,000 spent the previous quarter and 172 percent above the $360,000 spent in the third quarter of 2011. For the first three quarters of the year, Facebook has spent almost $2.6 million, compared to $910,000 during the comparable 2011 period.

"Google and Facebook would have you believe that they are different from other corporations," said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project director. "They are not. They are following the corrupt corporate tradition in Washington: buying what you want."

According to the House of Representatives Lobbying Disclosure Database , Apple also spent on lobbying$460,000, the same amount as the previous year. Amazon spent $550,000 compared to $450,000 in the third quarter of 2011, while Microsoft spent $1.86 million, down slightly from $1.88 million in 2011.