'Don't Be Google': The Rise of Privacy Focused Startups

Startups are taking on Google Analytics, a product used by more than half of the world's websites to understand people's browsing habits. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV AFP/File
Startups are taking on Google Analytics, a product used by more than half of the world's websites to understand people's browsing habits. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV AFP/File
TT
20

'Don't Be Google': The Rise of Privacy Focused Startups

Startups are taking on Google Analytics, a product used by more than half of the world's websites to understand people's browsing habits. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV AFP/File
Startups are taking on Google Analytics, a product used by more than half of the world's websites to understand people's browsing habits. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV AFP/File

Google once used the slogan "don't be evil" to distinguish itself from its competitors, but now a growing number of pro-privacy startups are rallying to the mantra "don't be Google".

They are taking on Google Analytics, a product used by more than half of the world's websites to understand people's browsing habits, AFP said.

"Google made a lot of good tools for a lot of people," says Marko Saric, a Dane living in Belgium who set up Plausible Analytics in Estonia in 2019.

"But over the years they changed their approach without really thinking what is right, what is wrong, what is evil, what is not."

Saric and many others are benefitting from GDPR, a European privacy regulation introduced in 2018 to control who can access personal data.

Last week, France followed Austria in declaring Google's practice of transferring personal data from the EU to its US servers was illegal under GDPR because the country does not have adequate protections.

Google disagrees, saying the data is anonymized and the scenarios envisaged in Europe are hypothetical.

Nevertheless, startups see an opening in a true David vs Goliath battle.

"The week that Google Analytics was ruled illegal by the Austrian DPA (data protection authority) was a good week for us," says Paul Jarvis, who runs Fathom Analytics from his home in Vancouver Island, Canada.

He says new subscriptions tripled over that week, though he does not give exact numbers.

Google dominates the analytics market with 57 percent of all websites using its service, according to survey group W3Techs. The best-established privacy-focused tool, Matomo, accounts for one percent of websites.

The smaller players know they are not going to overturn Google's domination, rather their aim is to inject a bit of fairness and choice into the market.

- 'Behemoth' application -
The supercharging moment for pro-privacy software developers came in 2013 when former CIA contractor Edward Snowden revealed how US security agencies were engaged in mass surveillance.

"We already knew some of it," says Matomo founder Matthieu Aubry. "But when he came out, we had proof that we weren't just paranoid or making stuff up."

Snowden showed how the US National Security Agency, aided by a system of secret courts, was able to gather personal data from users of websites including Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

Snowden's revelations helped to solidify support across Europe for its new privacy regulation and inspired software developers to make privacy central to their products.

The first thing the startups have taken aim at is the sheer complexity of Google Analytics.

"You have 1,000 different dashboards and all this data, but it doesn't help you if you don't understand it," says Michael Neuhauser, who launched Fair Analytics last month.

Jarvis, who had previously trained people to use Google Analytics, describes it as a "behemoth".

Unlike Google, the privacy-focused products do not use cookies to track users around the web and offer a much simpler array of data, helping them to keep within the boundaries of GDPR.

And they all make this a key selling point on their websites.

- 'An alternative internet' -
But making a living from these tools is no mean feat.

Saric of Plausible and Jarvis of Fathom both sank time and money into their projects before they could pay themselves a wage.

Both firms still operate with a startup mentality -- tiny teams working remotely across countries having direct contact with clients.

Aubry, who founded Matomo in 2007 when he was in his early 20s, remembers being in a similar position.

"For a long time, we didn't even have a business around the project, it was pure community," says the Frenchman from his home in Wellington, New Zealand.

But he says his firm now has global reach and he wants to help create "an alternative internet" not dominated by big tech.

His peers are at a much earlier stage but they certainly agree with the sentiment.

Jarvis reckons anyone switching from a big tech product is "a win for privacy" and helps to create a fairer system.

But a huge barrier remains: Google can afford to offer its tools for free, whereas the smaller firms need clients to pay, even if just a few dollars a month.

The privacy-focused firms say it is time to overhaul our understanding of these transactions.

"All of these free products that we use and love, we're not paying for them with money, we're paying for them with data and privacy," says Jarvis.

"We charge money for our product because it's just a more honest business model."



Big Tech on a Quest for Ideal AI Device

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive (L) has joined forces with OpenAI to make a device ideal for engaging with generative artificial intelligence. Matt Winkelmeyer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Former Apple design chief Jony Ive (L) has joined forces with OpenAI to make a device ideal for engaging with generative artificial intelligence. Matt Winkelmeyer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
TT
20

Big Tech on a Quest for Ideal AI Device

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive (L) has joined forces with OpenAI to make a device ideal for engaging with generative artificial intelligence. Matt Winkelmeyer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Former Apple design chief Jony Ive (L) has joined forces with OpenAI to make a device ideal for engaging with generative artificial intelligence. Matt Winkelmeyer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has enlisted the legendary designer behind the iPhone to create an irresistible gadget for using generative artificial intelligence (AI).

The ability to engage digital assistants as easily as speaking with friends is being built into eyewear, speakers, computers and smartphones, but some argue that the Age of AI calls for a transformational new gizmo.

"The products that we're using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology are decades old," former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive said when his alliance with OpenAI was announced.

"It's just common sense to at least think, surely there's something beyond these legacy products."

Sharing no details, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said that a prototype Ive shared with him "is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen."

According to several US media outlets, the device won't have a screen, nor will it be worn like a watch or broach.

Kyle Li, a professor at The New School, said that since AI is not yet integrated into people's lives, there is room for a new product tailored to its use.

The type of device won't be as important as whether the AI innovators like OpenAI make "pro-human" choices when building the software that will power them, said Rob Howard of consulting firm Innovating with AI

Learning from flops

The industry is well aware of the spectacular failure of the AI Pin, a square gadget worn like a badge packed with AI features but gone from the market less than a year after its debut in 2024 due to a dearth of buyers.

The AI Pin marketed by startup Humane to incredible buzz was priced at $699.

Now, Meta and OpenAI are making "big bets" on AI-infused hardware, according to CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood.

OpenAI made a multi-billion-dollar deal to bring Ive's startup into the fold.

Google announced early this year it is working on mixed-reality glasses with AI smarts, while Amazon continues to ramp up Alexa digital assistant capabilities in its Echo speakers and displays.

Apple is being cautious embracing generative AI, slowly integrating it into iPhones even as rivals race ahead with the technology. Plans to soup up its Siri chatbot with generative AI have been indefinitely delayed.

The quest for creating an AI interface that people love "is something Apple should have jumped on a long time ago," said Futurum research director Olivier Blanchard.

Time to talk

Blanchard envisions some kind of hub that lets users tap into AI, most likely by speaking to it and without being connected to the internet.

"You can't push it all out in the cloud," Blanchard said, citing concerns about reliability, security, cost, and harm to the environment due to energy demand.

"There is not enough energy in the world to do this, so we need to find local solutions," he added.

Howard expects a fierce battle over what will be the must-have personal device for AI, since the number of things someone is willing to wear is limited and "people can feel overwhelmed."

A new piece of hardware devoted to AI isn't the obvious solution, but OpenAI has the funding and the talent to deliver, according to Julien Codorniou, a partner at venture capital firm 20VC and a former Facebook executive.

OpenAI recently hired former Facebook executive and Instacart chief Fidji Simo as head of applications, and her job will be to help answer the hardware question.

Voice is expected by many to be a primary way people command AI.

Google chief Sundar Pichai has long expressed a vision of "ambient computing" in which technology blends invisibly into the world, waiting to be called upon.

"There's no longer any reason to type or touch if you can speak instead," Blanchard said.

"Generative AI wants to be increasingly human" so spoken dialogues with the technology "make sense," he added.

However, smartphones are too embedded in people's lives to be snubbed any time soon, said Wood.