1y ago

Mozilla just ditched its privacy partner because its CEO is tied to data brokers

www.theverge.com

Mozilla ends partnership with Onerep due to CEO's ties to data broker
Onerep's data removal service bundled into Mozilla's Monitor Plus subscription
Onerep CEO admits to owning people-search websites, leading to end of partnership with Mozilla. Transition plan in progress.

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1y ago

Mozilla just ditched its privacy partner because its CEO is tied to data brokers

www.theverge.com /2024/3/22/24109116/mozilla-ends-onerep-data-removal-partnership

Firefox @lemmy.ml

Bigfoot @lemm.ee

1y ago

Mozilla just ditched its privacy partner because its CEO is tied to data brokers

www.theverge.com /2024/3/22/24109116/mozilla-ends-onerep-data-removal-partnership

114 comments

This is what companies that actually care about privacy do. People over profits
Edit: actually, I’m not quite that naive, there’s certainly a business motive here. Cut the dead weight before it drags you down. Still, a good move nonetheless
- People over profit generally seems to be the best business practice anyways
  
  I had a car with a bad alternator and took it to a shop, manager quoted me $150 then called an hour later to say he’d picked the wrong version of my car on the computer, mine would be $100 more but he said “a deals a deal so we’ll do it for the 150.”
  Every other car problem I had after, straight to that shop cause I knew they’d do solid work and charge me fairly. Putting people before profits means retaining workers and getting loyal customers
  
  How did you get to this conclusion? Tesla, amazon, McDs etc are top tier companies who are notoriously shit both to work for and in how they operate in terms of skirting regulation etc.
- its a good long term business move. And mozilla is a nonprofit, not beholden to the whims of shareholders, so they can do long term moves in peace.
  
  Nonprofits can’t lose money. They still got bills and are motivated by revenue. I say this as someone who has worked in non-profits for most of my adult life
- It's sorta the other way. Mozilla constantly does stuff like that and backs off when they get called out on it.
- This one is cool but I'm still going with Librewolf, thanks.
This is fantastic. That said, Mozilla should really reconsider their own CEO too.
- Are you referring to the foundation president Mark Surman or the corporation CEO Laura Chambers? She seems to be an interim position holder, so I guess whatcha referring to?
  
  Laura. Her past affiliations are concerning. I'm aware she's seated on an interim position, but I can't imagine that there weren't any better candidates.
  
  Pretty sure he's saying there should be no ultimate head. Which...umm...if you get rid of CEO then someone below them is in charge and then you just keep cutting people until nobody is left lol
- They should not have a CEO, period. Useless do-nothing job.
  
  It's always funny to see someone who thinks they know how it works but in reality has no clue whatsoever how it works.
  
  how the hell do you expect to run a company (any company of any sort, non-profit included) without a proper legal representative
  
  What do you think that job consists of? Lol
People. This is talking about the CEO for Onerep, not the CEO for Mozilla.
- A good example that average reading comprehension is terrible.
  
  This isn't a reading comprehension issue.
- Oh thank God I was like bruh now what do I do
If only politicians were held up to the same standards when it came to being in positions of conflict of interest.
- We’d have to abolish everyone currently in office and start over.
  Which would be beautiful.
I’ve always been doubtful about these privacy “protection” services. Giving a bunch of personal data and money to a commercial entity making seemingly dubious claims it can compel other services to remove your data has never seemed like a great idea. Data is the new oil, it’s incredibly valuable, and there is too much incentive for companies like that to become just another data collector.
- The "incentive" is just greed. Customers could be paying a million dollars a month and there will still be some greedy, slimey executive pushing "if we sold their data too we could make a million and one dollars off them each month".
very deceptive title from the source author. OP please insert [, the privacy partner, Onerep's ] in place of "its" to make it clear Mozilla didn't do anything wrong here.
Mozilla could do something wrong, but I entirely read this as Mozilla's CEO had ties to data brokers and ditched Mozilla's privacy partner because of that.
- I'm not a native speaker, but the right meaning is the one that came to mind reading this title.
  I think context makes it clear, and the most likely meaning. If it was Firefoxs CEO the one at fault, I would think it's a ver weird way of saying it.
  But I also see people saying this is why Firefox is the worst and I'm not sure I got it right by accident, people have low reading comprehension or just a massive bias.
  
  I am a native english speaker and the headline absolutely makes sense and is clearly worded, some people just dont think about what they are reading and gloss over it.
  
  You're not wrong. But also keep in mind that headlines prime readers to think in a certain way before they even get a chance to read the context. No one will admit it, because headlines make money, but all it takes is one carefully worded headline to change how people interpret, feel about, and react to a story. Even when you're aware of this trick, it's impossible to avoid all the time. That's just how our brains work.
  
  Same, not a native speaker and I understood the title.
  
  Same, not a native speaker and I understood the title.
  
  No I read the title as Mozilla's CEO being tied to brokers.
  A better title might be "Mozilla just ditched a privacy partner whose CEO was found to have ties with data brokers"
- From the title I was so disappoint in Mozilla. So glad. No longer disappoint.
- A masterbaiter, perfect fit for making Youtube titles.
- Honestly it's a great way to get people who just read the title to self-report.
- @AnActOfCreation@programming.dev please edit :)
Good. Just another reason to keep Firefox.
- They initied the relationship like a month ago without any safety check. Is that also a good reason?
- When questionable decisions are seen as a virtue because they are reversed.
  
  Dunno about you, but recognizing a mistake and taking action to correct it is usually a sign of maturity in my book.
Mozilla is one the most important tech entities in the world at the moment. Web browsers and email are currently people's bedrock interface with the internet and Firefox (and to a lesser extent Thunderbird) are the only such mainstream applications which remain outside the complete dominance of commodification.
We might disagree with some things that Mozilla have done but they are in the increasingly unique position of having to maintain integrity and accessibility in a constantly narrowing space. That's because we, as users, keep using them, keep supporting them and keep demanding the best of them.
Big up Mozilla!
common Firefox W
I kind of feel like the only job of CEOs is to not intentionally fuck shits up. But they often seems to fail at that somehow.
- If you do a good job as CEO we'll pay you $1 million
  If you mess up as CEO we'll pay you $900,000
  If you really mess up as CEO we'll pay you $800,000
  If you completely tank the company .... we'll pay you $2 million
Looks like Mozilla will always depend on that google check lol.
- The headline is ambiguous here. The CEO in question is from Onerep, not Mozilla.
  
  And that is not related to the comment. If this partner is gone, Firefox lost a big deal.
- This CEO has been a problem from day one, and there needs to be a movement to get rid of them.
  
  Didn't the CEO recently step down or am I confused?
I'm not entirely sure I get this, so a company that will and does force other company's to remove personal data has ties to a broker and Mozilla dropped them for those ties, I mean its not bad but its definitely harsh and removes a useful service from a subscription they offered, hopefully Mozilla can at least find a new implementation or change the pricing to shadow the lack of this feature.
Edit: different article Mozilla did the right thing. I still think Mozilla should adjust pricing or implement a similar service.
- Personally, these services are all a bit sketchy anyway. Mostly because they advertise themselves as the magic bullet to remove all your unwanted personal data from the internet, but ignores that this removal relies on the cooperation of the third parties in possession of your data. Most notably, this won't work if your data has been exposed in a data breach.
  To me it very much feels like VPN ads. Technically a working product, but advertised in a very dishonest way.
  
  i agree, its more that if the vpn advertised a roster of features and removed one id still like to see the pricing reflect that reduction.
  
  VPN use should warrant the same privacy concerns. They can tell they respect your privacy all they want, nobody can control that.
  And they've got a huge incentive to sellling your data.
Is there any service like onerep that is reputable and folks could recommend? Luckily I didn’t use onerep, but would like a similar service to explore.
- https://easyoptouts.com
  I made a post on lemmy a while here: https://lemm.ee/post/22988838
  
  Thanks!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“Though customer data was never at risk, the outside financial interests and activities of Onerep’s CEO do not align with our values,” writes Mozilla’s vice president of communications Brandon Borrman, in a statement provided to The Verge.
The service let users hunt down their personal information on the web and submit takedown requests across dozens of websites — all through Mozilla’s partnership with Onerep.
However, an in-depth report from Krebs on Security found that Onerep’s CEO Dimitri Shelest started “dozens” of people-search websites over the course of several years.
Shelest later published a statement admitting that he still holds an ownership stake in Nuwber, which lets visitors search for people based on their name, phone number, address, or email.
“In truth, if I hadn’t taken that initial path with a deep dive into how people search sites work, Onerep wouldn’t have the best tech and team in the space.
“We’re working now to solidify a transition plan that will provide customers with a seamless experience and will continue to put their interests first,” Borrman tells The Verge.
The original article contains 308 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 43%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
LibreWolf. Firefox with lots of extra privacy
- Why the downvotes?
  
  Because you lack reading comprehension /s
  Also Librewolf is just hardened firefox with some other neat features, I use it but not as a daily driver
Hmm... I started trying out Brave last week. I was a little annoyed how Brave found and blocked a couple of google trackers on some of my old sites. What draw backs does Brave have compared to Firefox going forwards after Onerep?
- Brave has built-in telemetry, that pings their servers every day, by default it comes with a whole bunch of blockchain/NFT bullshit, it installs VPN services on your computer without your consent, they used to insert their affiliate links into URLs of shopping websites and there are many more controversies around Brave.
  
  And to add to all this, the company that maintains Brave is run by a well known anti-lgbtq bigot.
- It's Chromium underneath, so using it increases Google's control over web standards

114 comments