Zevin Asset Management believes that Alphabet Inc.'s governance of customer and user data represents a material and underappreciated risk to investors, to the company's long-term reputation, and to the broader public interest. We have taken two coordinated steps to push for greater accountability: a formal shareholder proposal submitted for the Annual Meeting, and a direct engagement letter sent to Alphabet's Board of Directors as part of a broader investor coalition. What follows describes each action and the concerns that motivate them.
Home Depot's Data Privacy & Immigration Enforcement Risk
Our shareholder proposal asks Home Depot to report on data privacy risks associated with its use of Flock Safety, a surveillance vendor whose network has been repeatedly accessed by federal immigration enforcement through local police intermediaries.
Specifically, the proposal focuses on how the company identifies, measures, and mitigates risks related to potential access or use of that data by third parties, including law enforcement agencies beyond its direct control.
Q1 2026 Impact Update
Our Q1 2026 Impact Update covers a quarter defined by regulatory rollback and active ownership. We examine the SEC's quiet dismantling of corporate disclosure requirements, our ongoing shareholder engagements with Home Depot and Microsoft on data privacy and human rights, and three investor sign-on letters touching gender equity, platform worker rights, and due process. As regulatory oversight recedes, our job — asking hard questions and staying in the room — becomes more important, not less.
Immigration: An Asset, Not a Liability
As long-term investors, we view immigration as a powerful driver of economic innovation and long-term value creation. Despite escalating anti-immigrant sentiment and increased enforcement activities, immigrants—documented and undocumented alike—make substantial contributions to the U.S. tax base, labor force, consumer demand, and entrepreneurship. Immigrants paid $652 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2023¹, equivalent to 2.3% of U.S. GDP and more than the entire economies of countries like Belgium or Argentina. This capital is vital for public infrastructure, schools, healthcare, and retirement systems. Notably, undocumented immigrants pay a higher average effective tax rate than the top 1% of households.²
How We Are Responding to the Climate Crisis
The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report concluded, once again, that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C in the next few decades will be beyond reach. Climate scientists continue to warn that structural changes in our economy are needed to mitigate the greatest harms of climate change. Meaningful policy changes are the most important strategy to address this, but the role of sustainable investing is also key.