this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
618 points (98.9% liked)

Technology

59179 readers
2519 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
  • Mozilla has launched a paid subscription service called Mozilla Monitor Plus, which monitors and removes personal information from over 190 sites where brokers sell data.
  • The service is priced at $8.99 per month and is an extension of the free dark web monitoring service Mozilla Monitor (previously Firefox Monitor).
  • Basic Monitor members receive a free scan and one-time removal sweep, while Plus members get continual monthly data broker scans and removal attempts.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/YdY3R

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 96 points 9 months ago (4 children)

God bless the Mozilla foundation

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Rodeo@lemmy.ca 56 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (7 children)

How can they know it's your data without first collecting your data to compare it?

"Give us your personal information so we can ask others to delete your personal information" just doesn't sound like a trustworthy offer.

[–] Steve@communick.news 110 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (12 children)

I can also see the irony. But I can't imagine another way to do it at any scale. Do you know of another option?

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 36 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Unless you trust Mozilla. I'm unaware of another organization that is more trustworthy, despite the haters mad that CEOs make money.

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 8 points 9 months ago (5 children)

The CEO is making an inordinate amount of money. $6.9 million is excessive.

You can argue that Mozilla should be held to the same low standard as every other corporation, but if you do that, you have to take into account that the Mozilla CEO got a huge pay raise in a year where other CEOs got less money.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 35 points 9 months ago

Likely you must provide Mozilla with basic identifying data like name and birth date. Which isn't all that radical since you're giving them quite a bit more by paying them.

[–] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 32 points 9 months ago

It's better when it's in their hands, because:

  1. It's Mozilla - one of the more trusty organizations out there.
  2. They don't get your information in some sneaky way from some source that was never supposed to be available to them.
  3. You know exactly how they make money from your data.
[–] Defaced@lemmy.world 20 points 9 months ago

It's ironic yeah, but if trust is the only way to implement something like this, then Mozilla is probably the one company I would trust considering they're a non-profit org.

[–] JustUseMint@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

There isn't a better company to do this than mozzila. I mean there literally are but in practice this is a good thing

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

The way I see it, if you're asking for data removal, it's because your identity is public online already, the company has nothing else to gain maybe other than the payment information and you can get a new card if they just happened to be untrustworthy.

[–] subignition@kbin.social 48 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There are already plenty of companies that sell managed data removal like this, Mozilla claims to be doing it better and perhaps they are incrementally more trustworthy than the smaller no name ones

[–] TheIllustrativeMan@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Discover does it for free, but they only do so on a handful of sites.

[–] Sabata11792@kbin.social 30 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Decided to try it out, 489 request in progress vs the 10 from a year with Discovers free takedowns.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] maccentric@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I just tried to enable it, they want $15/month.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 35 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If I’m reading this correctly, are they basically just reselling the Onerep service ($14.95/monthly or $99.96/annually) for $8.99/month?

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They're reselling it for $13.99/monthly or $107.88/annually.

So it's cheaper if you buy it for just one month at a time, but more expensive for the annual subscription... And there are other alternatives besides.

[–] irreticent@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And there are other alternatives besides.

If you have a Discover card they'll do the monitoring/removal for free.

[–] Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Discover only removes it from ten sites.

[–] irreticent@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

Oh, thanks. I didn't know.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 18 points 9 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


For $8.99 a month under its annual subscription, Mozilla says it will automatically keep a lookout for your information at over 190 sites where brokers sell information they’ve gathered from online sources like social media sites, apps, and browser trackers, and when your info is found, it will automatically try to get it removed.

Mozilla Monitor product manager Tony Cinotto told The Verge in an email that Mozilla partners with a company called Onerep to perform these scans and subsequent takedown requests.

Mozilla will keep trying, he added, but will also give Plus members instructions for attempting removal themselves.

Basic Monitor members will get a free scan and one-time removal sweep, plus continual monthly data broker scans afterward, Mozilla says.

Mozilla says its data broker scans can find details online like your name and current and previous home addresses but adds that it could go as deep as criminal history, hobbies, or your kids school district.

Services like this are fairly common, but they’re not all that well known to most people and searching for them is as likely to turn up sketchy scam sites as it is legitimate service providers like, for instance, DeleteMe.


The original article contains 325 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 40%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] SeekPie@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago

Almost got a heart attack when I read that they made a subscription service.

[–] ares35@kbin.social 14 points 9 months ago (2 children)

services like this rely upon the data harvesters and brokers to honor removal requests. honest ones would. but there's tons of them that aren't legit, so it's like using a straw to empty lake superior.

[–] ohlaph@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Exactly. I trust Mozilla, but I absolutely do not trust the broker sites to actually honor a request to remove data.

[–] thehatfox@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Even for the “honest” data collectors I’m sceptical any of these services really work. Privacy and data protection laws are weak in many places, and even the countries that have enacted better legislation in this regard often have fairly toothless enforcement. Data is the new oil and is far too valuable for companies to want to part with. There seems little real incentive for companies to truthfully cooperate with these schemes.

[–] TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

We need chain of custody data laws. If FB sells your data they’re responsible for keeping a chain of custody as to who they sold it to and requests for removal need to follow that chain down with regular audits and stiff fines for noncompliance.

[–] OscarRobin@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

If they added automatic online account collation and mass deletion I'd pay them $100 on the spot to wipe the hundreds of random accounts I have on sites/services I never use and often have never used.

load more comments
view more: next ›