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Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#101

Post by rayshan »

anjel wrote: post #78
ary wrote: post #7

I’m a happy, long term Optery user (not affiliated) and they take care of 100% of this for you. https://www.optery.com The Mozilla offering looks somewhat comparable, but I do wonder if they’re going to beat a company which has the sole focus of solving this problem.

I cleared my name from the net using another service that charged by the month. I paid them for three months, when their work clearing my data from about 100+brokers was completed, then cancelled. 2 years later, my name and personal data still remain no longer to be found like it once was before the scrubbing.

What is the service you used?

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#103

Post by mozempthrowaway »

temp0826 wrote: post #11
tbitrust wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I lose trust in Mozilla Why did you lose trust in Mozilla? What other browser would you recommend instead?

Mozilla != Firefox The ceo is a joke and the org sucks.

Not sure why this is downvoted. Mitchell has been a disaster for Mozilla (her only accomplishment is squeezing more money out of Google for the search deal despite an ever dwindling user base for FF - we measure DAU and MAU and the hemorrhaging hasn’t stopped).

Very few people in the org actually work on FF. It’s increasingly other bets that don’t pan out or weird acquisitions: Hubs, Pocket, FakeSpot, VPN, Relay, now Monitor. Eventually these lose enough money and they’ll cut them. Then inevitably Mitchell will run a surplus in the budget by cutting projects early and squeezing more money out of Google, funnel the money back to the Mozilla foundation which she also chairs, and then doll it out to her pet political projects.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#104

Post by gnicholas »

> we can automatically and continuously request to remove your personal information with an annual paid subscription of $8.99 per month ($107.88 a year).

This is a lot of money for most people. What would the benefit be of doing this all the time versus just subscribing once a year? How quickly do details reappear in databases?

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#105

Post by Liquid_Fire »

pluc wrote: post #83
Liquid_Fire wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't look the same to me. haveibeenpwned will notify you if your email address was in a breach. The Mozilla offering seems to include the same, but also cover other pieces of personal data, and the ability to request removal from data brokers.

That ability is not the product they're offering though, that's something you can already once you identify where your data is. And obviously that's if they have a way for you to do request removal and if they feel like doing it at all which are the same constraints for Mozilla. I think this is all purely for convenience of having it all done for you (which is okay)

Well, even if you consider the removal aspect of it useless since you could do it yourself, there is still value in knowing where your data is. Have I Been Pwned will tell you about breaches, but not about brokers reselling your data, and they only monitor email addresses.

And yes, you could probably go and ask the brokers directly, but that is certainly a lot of time and effort, so paying for it might make sense, assuming you trust the service provider.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#106

Post by JohnTHaller »

cwales95 wrote: post #81
Vinnl wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry about that. The form should only be shown for people in the USA, but detecting the country you're in can't be done perfectly. Which is a good reminder - we'll look into making the US-only part clearer. (I'm an engineer on Monitor.)

I'm also not clear why this is US only. There's definitely a market in other areas of the world. I'd be interested to know why it should be US only.

They're likely starting with the US because either their partner(s) for this is US only and/or it's easier to start with a single large market. The US is about a 50% larger market in terms of GDP than all EU countries combined.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#107

Post by beyondd »

sp0rk wrote: post #98
beyondd wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the issues are OneRep's affiliate partnerships with the very data brokers you're paying them to remove you from: https://imgur.com/a/juSC66b

I think "partnership" seems like too strong a word for what appears to be the simple use of an affiliate program. Why would OneRep know or care about an individual affiliate and the content of their site, as long as their behavior with regards to the affiliate program is above-board?

Affiliate programs have application processes intended to filter out bad actors and mis-alignment with a brand. To use an extreme example, a web site promoting terrorism would typically be rejected. Approving data brokers as affiliate partners for a data broker removal service is viewed by many as questionable. To use an another extreme example, how would you feel about an anti-virus software company that approved as affiliate partners creators and distributors of computer virus programs.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#108

Post by ethagnawl »

JohnMakin wrote: post #40
ethagnawl wrote: post #16

How do they get your data removed from the brokers' databases?

They submit an opt-out request on your behalf. Frequently, the data will not be removed entirely, or re-surfaces later on. You're entirely dependent on the good will of the data broker sites, who are likely trying very hard to stop automation like this.

> Frequently, the data will not be removed entirely, or re-surfaces later on. You're entirely dependent on the good will of the data broker sites, who are likely trying very hard to stop automation like this.

This was my instinctual, cynical assumption, too. Unless there's a GDPR-like law in place and some standard for differentiating identities, they're just going to find loopholes to recapture peoples' data (e.g. remove middle initial, modify address format, etc.).

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#109

Post by geor9e »

ary wrote: post #7

I’m a happy, long term Optery user (not affiliated) and they take care of 100% of this for you. https://www.optery.com The Mozilla offering looks somewhat comparable, but I do wonder if they’re going to beat a company which has the sole focus of solving this problem.

Haha wow it's actually asking me to sign over LIMITED POWER OF ATTORNEY. It's optional but says it's recommended. That's a nope from me.

Re: Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers

#110

Post by spiffytech »

gnicholas wrote: post #104

> we can automatically and continuously request to remove your personal information with an annual paid subscription of $8.99 per month ($107.88 a year). This is a lot of money for most people. What would the benefit be of doing this all the time versus just subscribing once a year? How quickly do details reappear in databases?

I'm given to understand these data broker services make it as painful and time-consuming to opt out as they can. Supposing you can even find all the places you're listed (Optery supports 305+ sites), it sounds like a substantial time commitment to follow through on all of them.
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