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Mozilla ended its partnership with Onerep. Krebs on Security reported on Onerep's CEO admitting he had connections to data brokers. “While customer data was never at risk, the outside financial interests and activities of Onerep's CEO are not aligned with our values,” Mozilla Vice President of Communications Brandon Borrman said in a statement. said.
Mozilla's role as privacy advocate
In February, Mozilla included Onerep's data removal service in its new $8.99 monthly Monitor Plus subscription. This service allowed users to find their personal information on the web and submit removal requests through dozens of websites. All of this was happening thanks to Mozilla's partnership with Onerep.
However, an in-depth report by Krebs on Security found that Onerep CEO Dimitri Shelest opened “dozens” of people-search websites over several years. Shelest later issued a statement acknowledging that he still had an ownership interest in Nuwber, which allows visitors to search for people based on name, phone number, address or email. Shelest says there is “zero crossover or information sharing” between Nuwber and Onerep.
Shelest said in his statement: “I understand. “My involvement with a human search business may seem strange from the outside,” he said. “In reality, Onerep wouldn't have the best technology and team it has today if I hadn't gone down the path of understanding in depth how people search sites work. However, since we did not make this clearer in the past, I now appreciate it and aim to do better in the future.”
Following Shelest's statement, Mozilla decided to terminate its short-term partnership with Onerep. “We are currently working to solidify a transition plan that will provide a seamless experience for our customers, and we will continue to put our customers' interests first,” Borrman told The Verge. he stated. Mozilla did not immediately indicate whether it would replace Onerep with another partner or discontinue the service altogether.
This incident once again underlines the importance of digital privacy and data protection and underlines Mozilla's determined stance on protecting user data. In the world of technology, it is increasingly important for companies and CEOs to comply with ethical standards, especially when it comes to protecting personal data. This step by Mozilla can be considered as an indication of its commitment to protecting users' privacy rights.