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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Daughter3546@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

Onerep is a privacy monitoring service/ privacy provider that Mozilla partnered with for their Mozilla Monitor service.

Yesterday, Brian Krebs (a cybersecurity journalist) dug into Onerep and found that the CEO is a shady Belarussian. Dimitri Shelest, CEO, of Onerep owns multiple “people searching” websites. Shelest has also been linked to aggressive spam and affiliate marketing emails.

Onerep’s reputation is shady due to their CEO’s multiple conflicts of interest. At worst, Onerep is sucking your personal information. At best, you’re paying for a service that doesn’t do anything. Either way, I would not trust Mozilla Monitor service .

This is a copy and paste from a post I made to firefox@lemmy.ml. I do not no know how to crosspost and I apologise for my mistake a head of time.

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[-] suppenloeffel@feddit.de 94 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yikes. This has the potential to seriously damage the reputation of Mozilla. I guess there are 3 possibilities:

  • Onerep isn't actually shady, but partnering with a company part of a conglomerate with companies directly opposing the stated goal isn't a good look either way
  • Onerep is shady and Mozilla failed to conduct the necessary research before partnering with them
  • Onerep is shady and Mozilla knew

In any case: Personally, I'll never not be grateful towards Mozilla for continuing to support and develop Firefox, which is quite literally the only relevant engine standing against the monopoly of chromium and all the bad that entails. But I trust other companies/initiatives/projects more when it comes to services other than the browser engine.

[-] DangerousInternet@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

I guess they did not knew about it, but only because they just do not give a shit about privacy, only claim they are privacy oriented.

[-] fl42v@lemmy.ml 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[-] Daughter3546@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Apologies! The links must not have copied over from my post on firefox@lemmy.ml! I'll update the post with the correct links.

Edit: I updated the original post with the correct links.

[-] Gork@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

It appears Mr. Shelest sought to reinvent his online identity in 2015 by adding a “2” to his email address. A search on the Belarus phone number tied to Nuwber.com shows up in the domain records for askmachine.org, and DomainTools says this domain is tied to both dmitrcox@gmail.com and dmitrcox2@gmail.com.

"Drats! They found out! My plans are foiled again!"

[-] LWD@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

deleted by creator

[-] utopiah@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 year ago

At least they are very clear about what data is at risk here, namely "OneRep receives your

  • first and last name,
  • email address,
  • phone number,
  • physical address and
  • date of birth

in order to scan data broker sites to find your personal data and request its removal." cf https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/subscription-services/

It's indeed not a good look anyway to be partnering (without doing much that sharing your brand, and thus trust invested in you) with somebody apparently solving the problem... they themselves help fuel.

[-] FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 8 points 1 year ago

Is this a shitpost? I'm confused as to how they'd verify if your accounts are compromised without knowing your basic info.

That's not the problem, the problem is whether we can actually trust Mozilla Monitor to not sell the same data you're trying to scrub.

[-] FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 4 points 1 year ago

Fair enough. I completely agree that the feature creep is concerning and aggravating. I think it comes down to them trying to grow adoption of the browser and services. Mozilla has like a 1% market share. I'll still use it over chrome or edge. At least we can disable all the bullshit in about:config or just not sign up for the extra services.

[-] Scolding0513@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

This reminds me of that one virus where you put your Credit Card info into the shady website to check that "your card is not in any hacker database" lmao

[-] rdyoung@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

If anyone reading this has an account with discover, they offer a similar service for free. If you don't have a discover account, create one.

[-] lemmyreader@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

The krebsonsecurity.com page had an update where Mozilla is quoted :

Update, March 15, 11:35 a.m. ET: Many readers have pointed out something that was somehow overlooked amid all this research: The Mozilla Foundation, the company that runs the Firefox Web browser, has launched a data removal service called Mozilla Monitor service that bundles OneRep. That notice says Mozilla Monitor is offered as a free or paid subscription service.

“The free data breach notification service is a partnership with Have I Been Pwned (“HIBP”),” the Mozilla Foundation explains. “The automated data deletion service is a partnership with OneRep to remove personal information published on publicly available online directories and other aggregators of information about individuals (“Data Broker Sites”).”

In a statement shared with KrebsOnSecurity.com, Mozilla said they did assess OneRep’s data removal service to confirm it acts according to privacy principles advocated at Mozilla.

“We were aware of the past affiliations with the entities named in the article and were assured they had ended prior to our work together,” the statement reads. “We’re now looking into this further. We will always put the privacy and security of our customers first and will provide updates as needed.”

[-] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

It's like a twisted mustache twirling disney villanesque version of data leak conspiracies. Only way I can think of for this to be funnier is if it turns out the dude also had a prominent position in some secret police state agency.

[-] Daughter3546@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It does sound like a conspiracy and I am advocating to wait until Mozilla addresses the concern. In my opinion, it's likely an oversight and failure to do their due diligence.

[-] sanpo@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 year ago

That's a pretty damn big "oversight" for a company claiming to have privacy as one of their main selling points...

[-] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Maybe they're so good at erasing online data that when they got to choosing a CEO, they couldn't find any info on this dude being shady online.

[-] Daughter3546@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I agree and I am going to give them benefit of doubt until they issue a statement or address it.

[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

If you're looking for a data removal service, I can personally vouch for easyoptouts. I made a post here about it.

https://lemm.ee/post/22988838

this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2024
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