Shareholder activists are gaining strength in the US as corporations such as Google, the world’s biggest internet company, and ExxonMobil, the largest oil producer, come under fire from special-interest groups.

The New York State Pension Funds, one of the biggest and most powerful investors in the US, has got a resolution included on Google’s proxy form that could dramatically affect the way that the company does business if it gains the support of a majority of shareholders.

The New York pension funds, which own 486,617 shares of Google class-A stock, demand that Google implement a clear code of conduct to protect users from being monitored by what they consider oppressive foreign regimes.

The funds outlined a six-point agenda in the proxy demanding that Google should not host user information in countries that restrict internet usage, such as Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The group also demands that Google should pledge not to engage in censorship, using all means at its disposal to fight government demands to restrict access to certain information.

Google made clear its opposition to the proposed resolution by urging shareholders to vote against it, adding that all blank ballots would be taken as a vote against the proposal.

Meanwhile, the National Council of Women’s Organisations (NCWO) has stepped up its campaign to force ExxonMobil to drop its sponsorship of the US Masters golf tournament at The Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Augusta bars women from membership and the NCWO believes Exxon should not use shareholders’ funds to promote a competition hosted by an organisation not complying with the company’s own equal opportunities policy.

The group won enough votes at Exxon’s 2006 annual meeting to have its proposed resolution included on the 2007 proxy form, but Exxon excluded the item because of a technicality.

However, Martha Burke, the NCWO’s president, said: “We will continue to ask Exxon to explain how much money is spent on sponsoring the Masters. As shareholders, we have a right to know.”

–– Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founders, accepted a 2006 annual salary of just $1 — choosing to make do with $2.4 billion (£1.2 billion) each in share-price gains and another $1.4 billion each from selling down their stakes in the company. Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, also received a $1 salary, making the third consecutive year that its top three have taken nominal basic pay.

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