Mozilla’s recent restructuring of its service offerings has brought about another significant change, this time involving the termination of its partnership with a crucial provider for Mozilla Monitor Plus, a subscription-based data-broker cleanup service.
This decision stems from the discovery that the CEO of OneRep, the current service provider responsible for removing user information from people-finding sites, has a history of founding numerous such websites. Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security uncovered this association in mid-March, shedding light on the continued involvement of Dimitri Shelest, OneRep’s CEO, with an active data broker website.
Data brokers, known for harvesting personal data from various sources and selling detailed profiles, pose a significant threat to privacy. To address this concern, Mozilla collaborated with OneRep to introduce Monitor Plus, a subscription service priced at $9 per month, designed to assist users in removing their data from these platforms—a process that can be daunting when attempted individually.
In response to Krebs’ findings, Mozilla has chosen to terminate its partnership with OneRep and is currently transitioning to a new service provider for Monitor Plus. However, specific details regarding the timeline for this transition are yet to be disclosed.
Introduced in early February, Mozilla Monitor Plus represents an evolution of the company’s existing free lookup tool. This comprehensive service not only monitors data leaks through integration with Troy Hunt’s Have I Been Pwned but also facilitates the automatic submission of opt-out requests to data broker sites, courtesy of OneRep. Despite Mozilla’s recent adjustments to its privacy and security initiatives announced in mid-February, Monitor Plus remains unaffected by these changes.