That’s how he funds the business, by the way. The basic version of webXray is available to anyone, but Libert offers a special tier for litigators, regulators, and companies looking to make their digital presence compliant with the law. It also offers consulting services and acts as an expert witness in litigation.
I gave the keys to the site to digital rights activist Cory Doctorow, who had a quick look and agreed with the idea. “I think the path forward here is class action lawsuits,” Doctorow said, noting that this could lead to a mountain of class action lawsuits against big tech companies. “To the extent that this simply exposes API calls and produces evidence that Google is taking data that they don’t have consent to lawfully receive or keep, this is the right move. I think this is conclusive evidence,” he said.
Lybert agrees: “Well, I want to be the Henry Ford of technology litigation. I want to turn this into an assembly line.”
He’s already taken action: Three months after leaving Google, Libert testified as an expert witness in a trial alleging that websites were leaking data to Google in violation of the law. His former employer tried to disqualify him, ironically arguing that he knew too much. On Google’s policy and internal standards team, “Dr. Libert has become the go-to person for all things cookie-related,” according to the company’s court records. (On Monday, a judge dismissed that case pending appeal.)
“When I filed my first lawsuit and used webXray for that, they lost,” Libert says of Google’s response. “If you look at those court filings, there’s one thing that’s driving it: fear. They’re afraid that this data will be available, because they know it will affect their revenue, and that’s what scares them.”
“One of the tragedies of Google is that they used to be a positive example, but over the last three to five years in particular they’ve been systematically setting a positive example rather than a positive example,” Libert said. “And I think that’s what’s burning the web. The most powerful companies are doing things like encouraging people to put glue on pizza. It’s not just that. website The one who is doing it is of Website, of That was part of my frustration with the ad platforms doing that.”
Of course, Google disagrees with this characterization of its tools and practices. “We design and build products with strong security and privacy protections, including easy-to-use controls for managing and deleting your data,” said Bryant, the company spokesperson. “When it comes to advertising, Google was the first company to build tools that allow users to review and adjust their ad settings, and opt out of personalized ads altogether.”
Libert is pessimistic about the state of online privacy, but he’s also an optimist. He believes webXray can help accelerate the transition to a better, more private and more secure web — a path currently blocked by Google and other big tech companies. And it’s probably no coincidence that Google’s privacy team has seen a massive exodus of talent in recent months. The announcement that Google’s privacy chief Keith Enright was leaving the company came in June, with his post “unreplaceable.” Libert says he’s seeing a mass layoff of his colleagues. To Libert, it seems like Google is downplaying privacy at the very time that users are clamoring for stronger policies.
“The problem we had 10 to 15 years ago was we didn’t have laws. Now many countries have laws, and the vast majority of people on the planet are protected by data privacy laws, but enforcement hasn’t kept up,” he says. “It will catch up, and I think we can accelerate it, because people are want Privacy. It’s that simple. That’s why he imagines law firms, government agencies and corporations will use his new search engine to eradicate the scourge of privacy violations on the web.
Perhaps this is why webXray’s tagline is simple and ideal: “Privacy is inevitable.”
I’m sure you’ll understand.
Updated July 24, 2024 at 1:50pm: We’ve clarified the release date for webXray, which officially went live on Wednesday.
