As Privacy Concerns Grow, This Austin Startup is Calling Out Misleading Policies

For many people in the web development world, it's been obvious for quite some time that new methods of tracking and trading personal information is rampant and growing by the day.

For the rest of us, the idea that our login information and other tracking data generates big money for big businesses and can be used and misused in almost any imaginable way is a relatively fresh revelation.

But it's a big revelation that's leading people to rethink their digital diets.

While big tech data-sharing scandals continue to evolve globally, smaller tech startups are making moves to help regular internet users better understand what they're wading into online.

Osano, a startup launched by serial founder Arlo Gilbert last year, is on the forefront of this battle. Its main product, Privacy Monitor, can be added to your browser and it gives you a score that indicates how good or bad a privacy policy is for whatever website you happen to be on.

To help draw attention to this subject, it has taken the bold move of creating a "Misleader Board," to point out some of the worst policies Osano's team of lawyers has analyzed.

Of course, they haven't looked at every website yet -- they've started by looking at many of the biggest players. And, in their inaugural list, banking giant Capital One came in first place.

"If you interact with Capital One on any social media platform, you are agreeing to the privacy policy, even though you won’t be notified and have likely never been provided with an opportunity to review it," the rating reads.

And some of those called out might surprise you. Here's the top 8 from Osano's list.

Privacy Monitor's ratings are developed by lawyers who review privacy policies, terms of service, data protection documents and other legalese from thousands of websites, and they're assisted by natural language processing. They answer 150 questions about the website they're looking at and that helps develop the eventual score assigned.

For example, if you're on a website that works with other software vendors and your information streams through several systems, it may get a worse score because personally identifiable information, such as a combination of your name and a few other identifying factors, is channeled to many places.

“It becomes this big waterfall chart where you can see how the data starts in one place and kind of spreads out like a sneeze," Gilbert said.

He said the scores are objective, since they're based on the same questions. I asked him if he worries about how those big companies might respond to Privacy Monitor's ratings.

“Because we’re mission driven, if calling out bad actors gets us sued out of existence, then I guess that’s what happens because somebody has to stand up and point out these bad practices," he said.

But, so far, the companies it has listed haven't contacted Osano, Gilbert said. Consumers and investors, however, have provided a few positive responses.

Osano has raised about $3 million in venture capital, in a round with LiveOak Venture Partners, Next Coast Ventures, Capital Factory, Social Starts and a variety of angel investors -- many of them locals in Austin. It has six employees, and about 22 lawyers who work almost full-time analyzing policies.

Gilbert previously founded software startup Meta SaaS, which was acquired a year ago, and he has also founded several other tech startups, including App Suey, Departing LLC and iCall. He is also an angel investor. He developed the idea for Osano during the congressional hearings on the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal. Specifically, he realized that many lawmakers didn't seem to have a basic understanding of how cookies are used for tracking.

“That was the lightbulb moment where we saw smart people confused ... they had zero clue about the basics," he said. “There exists this really huge gap in technology between the people who understand it and the people who don’t."

Of course, like restaurant health ratings and movie ratings and many other ratings, consumers may not always make decisions based on a grade. But giving consumers tools to be informed about what may happen with their personal information is part of Osano's mission -- and part of why it is a B-Corp that pledges to put mission ahead of profit.

Also, as part of its mission, Osano is focused on building a diverse team, Gilbert said.

“For me, this company is an opportunity to do everything I've ever wanted to do at another company in terms of hiring and doing good for the world," he said.