In November, news appeared claiming that Google had quietly tracked the location of its Android users, even those who had turned off such monitoring on their smartphones.

It was a good story but it appeared to have been based on evidence supplied by Oracle.

In fact Recode  says the pair have been locked in a cloak and dagger, take no prisoners lobbying campaign against Google.

It all comes down to the fact that Google has consistently refused to pay Oracle billions of dollars for using parts of its code in Android.

Google, for its part, has fought those claims vigorously and reasonably successfully. However it too a darker turn when Oracle tried to sell reporters on a story about Android’s privacy pitfalls.

The story was correct. Google itself acknowledged the mishap and said it ceased the practice. But Oracle’s antics did not stop there. It has devoted a slice of its $8.8 million in lobbying spending so far in 2017 to challenging Google in key policy debates. It has been baying for Google to be put down in Europe, and even purchased billboard ads in Tennessee hack the outfit off.

Oracle has denied that that is mounting a war against Google but did acknowledge that Oracle had “substantial technical expertise on Android because Google stole Android from us”, adding: “We have talked to dozens of people about Android because Google’s deception about data privacy impacts the entire industry.”

The fruits of Oracle’s lobbying of US politicians appear to have paid off too. There has been a fight over online privacy and the Republicans have also supported dismantling net neutrality mostly because Google was not included in the laws. GOP lawmaker, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, introduced a bill that aimed to subject Telcos and Google industries to tougher privacy regulations.

Oracle publicly praised the lawmaker for her work product. Many in tech saw it as an odd move for a company with no search or advertising business, but it was clearly seeing value for its lobbying dollar.

Oracle purchased mobile billboards in Blackburn’s home state, Tennessee, in an apparent bid to rile locals about the power and reach of Silicon Valley, two sources told Recode. “Internet companies betrayed you”, the ad began. It didn’t mention Google by name, but it still charged that the industry had “sold your most sensitive and personal information for $125 billion in advertising revenue last year”.

Last year, for example, Oracle intervened in a wonky fight at the Federal Communications Commission over television set-top boxes to take the opposite side of its rival. It also unexpectedly declared its support for an anti sex trafficking bill in the US Congress that Google and other Silicon Valley giants had been fighting. Google was worried it would open them to new lawsuits. Oracle had no stake in the outcome but it waded in anyway.

Google has little support from politicians. Its chief executive, Safra Catz, served on the team that helped President Donald Trump staff his White House, and she repeatedly has joined him at public gatherings to discuss tech policy. Oracle has hired aides like Josh Pitcock, a former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence.

To be fair this is exactly what Google did with the Obama administration. Eric Schmidt advised Obama on policy and aided his election efforts, and numerous Google employees ultimately landed in Obama’s ranks during his eight years running the country.

Google has not been passive throughout Oracle’s shenanigans either. It launched its lobbying army with a slide deck that sought to detail all of the ways its new rival was carrying out its “vendetta”.

Google warned members of Congress about the so-called Google Transparency Project which has produced research about the search giant’s political activities — including its massive funding for academics. Google claims the Project was bankrolled by Oracle.

Oracle insists it has “has nothing to do with the running of the Google Transparency Project and has never seen their research prior to publication,” but added that its research “appears unimpeachable".