BUT OF COURSE: Facebook — even as it apologizes for scandal — funds campaign to block a California data-privacy measure.

The social media giant’s donation matched others from Google, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon—a million-dollar sign that the issue of how companies collect and share personal information is likely to grow into an expensive fight as election season unfolds in California.

The businesses are fighting an initiative proposed by San Francisco real estate developer Alastair Mactaggart, who’s already spent $1.7 million on a measure that would allow Californians to prohibit companies from selling or sharing their personal data. His campaign is gathering signatures with the goal of landing the California Consumer Privacy Act on the November ballot.

“What we are proposing is some very basic rights: Let people find out what information companies are collecting, and let them have the ability to say, ‘Don’t sell my information,’” said Mactaggart, who was inspired to draft the initiative after chatting at a party with a Google engineer who told him that people would freak out if they knew how much companies track, compile and sell their personal information.

At the very least, give Facebook and Google users a cut of the action.