Mozilla will launch data removal service Firefox Monitor Premium soon
Mozilla plans to launch Firefox Monitor Premium, a commercial service to remove personal information from the Internet, soon in the United States.
Firefox Monitor Premium is an extension of Firefox Monitor, a free service that informs users if their email addresses are affected by data breaches. Firefox Monitor checks if the user's email address is found in publicly available data breaches.
Information about a data removal option appeared on the Internet in late 2021. Users could join a waitlist back then to get invited to test the new data removal functionality.
Mozilla worked on Firefox Monitor in the meantime. It relaunched the service in April with a new design.
Firefox Monitor Premium uses the API of Onerep to power its data searching and removal operations. Onerep is a commercial service that operates in the United States only. It allows subscribers to monitor more than 190 different data brokers, including several search engines, for records of their information.
Removal requests may be submitted to these brokers using the service. Another key feature of Onerep is monitoring. It is a monthly report that highlights removal requests, statistics and other information related to the service's operations.
Firefox Premium Monitor works similarly. Subscribers of the service need to add their information to it, as it is used to scan the Web for the data. Mozilla reveals the number of sites that are selling the information.
The service will also reveal if credit card numbers, social security IDs, email addresses or passwords were found in leaks or exposed.
Mozilla has yet to reveal a launch date for the service. The mockups, which Sören Hentzschel posted on his blog, list a price of $4.99 per month or $50 per year. These may change, as the price is cheaper than the price that Onerep charges on its website.
Firefox Monitor Free users may use the scan of the Premium service once to find out about data leaks. They can't use the automatic removal request feature of the data removal service, but they may use the information to request manual removals of their data from broker sites.
Closing Words
Firefox Monitor Premium extends Mozilla's portfolio of commercial web services. Mozilla VPN was launched in 2020 officially in some countries. There is also Firefox Relay, which protects email addresses through forwarding.
These services help Mozilla diversify its revenue and reduce the reliance on revenue from search engine deals. It is probably only a matter of time before a Mozilla 365 subscription service is launched that gives subscribers access to all of these services.
The official Firefox Monitor website provides no information yet on the Premium version of the service. Whether it will be launched in other countries and regions is unclear at this point.
Now You: do you use any of Mozilla's services?
Anything other than fixing their POS ‘privacy respecting’ browser with bugs going back over a decade. That’s what you get by trusting Google’s controlled opposition. Anyone who still defends Mozilla as some scrappy underdog fighting the ‘good’ fight has their head firmly lodged up their posterior.
Mate firefox pretty much is the defacto underdog as it’s the only viable non-chromium browser for Windows, it’s not left to opinion, lol, it’s fact.
As a Firefox user, I don’t care about addon services – how does the introduction of this “data removal service” impact my use of the browser? Short answer is, it doesn’t.
Article:
“Mozilla plans to launch Firefox Monitor Premium, a commercial service”
I think Mozilla should split FF into two separate entities. One which is a nice FOSS browser but without them fucking with the GUI, making it harder to do certain things, disable or cripple about:config, etc.
THEN a separate browser for commercial shit.
@Martin Brinkmann,
“ghacks” should summarize articles from a point of view that subscribers will not misunderstand or distort.
Although not limited to this topic, BS stands out in Comments.
There may be some arbitrary comments by the contributor, but there are also problems with the article.
Lol, Is this just a massive data grab? Every business wants to know everything about you so they can monetize you. Now mozilla wants in on the act.
In order to delete data on one site you must provide all of it – every possible shred of information that could be known about you – so that it can allegedly delete it from other sites?
Surely the security on those sites would prevent such access by a third party, preventing the deletion. And for those that allegedly delete data – do they actually delete it or simply flag it and tell you that it’s been deleted.
This sounds like a really bad idea and one that will not be effective. Let’s see how many people get sucked into believing the hype.
Firefox Monitor
https://github.com/mozilla/blurts-server
is a data breach notification service offered by Mozilla that warns you if your online accounts have been involved in a data leak. Using the “Have I Been Pwned database”, Firefox Monitor keeps track of known data breaches and notifies you if your online accounts are compromised, providing guidance on how to proactively protect yourself going forward.
The “Have I Been Pwned Database” offline tool is being released in a timely manner.
https://github.com/mihaifm/HIBPOfflineCheck
KeePass Password Safe possible to add that database, allowing you can complete account data leaks check offline.
However, most home users “feel that account leaks are Someone else’s problem, are ignorant and indifferent”, so account leaks are becoming more serious.
Concerned about the current situation, Mozilla explicitly provides the “Firefox Monitor” service.
Firefox Monitor – Frequently asked questions
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-monitor-faq
In short, if you refuse the online tools, use the “Have I Been Pwned Database” offline tool.
I have a bad feeling that any “data brokers” are just going to laugh, take your money, and then the next time they sell your data they’ll charge more because now it’s been “verified” due to you making the payment.
Why is Mozilla getting involved in this nonsense? (other than the obvious – making money)
If Mozilla simply stopped handing over user data to Google with their default settings they would do more to reduce the spread of private data than by getting involved in scams like this.
Hmm, first we gather your data without your permission and sell it, then we charge you to get it deleted.
Sounds familiar.
I am a faithful user of Mozilla’s Firefox but that’s about it. Not that I dislike the company’s other services, free or not, but only that I have no need for them.
– Thunderbird : great, I used it for years and still would hadn’t I have switched to Webmail only.
– Firefox Monitor : I never check whether an email address or username has been part of a data breach.
– Firefox Monitor Premium : ever since year 2000 I’ve been aware — increasingly aware — of privacy breaches on the Web, have always behaved accordingly and never faced whatever issue, any that I’d be aware of anyway, hence data removal is not in my scope.
A word about data leak monitoring/removal : I’d really have to face a tough problem to provide a data removal service specifics about credit card numbers, social security IDs, email addresses or passwords …. the idea of sharing confidential data to know if it’s been broken bothers me so to say.
– Mozilla VPN : I don’t use any VPN. I would should any of my devices operate from a restrictive country.
– Firefox Relay : I use the AnonAddy Firefox extension and because it works flawlessly I haven’t tried any alternative.
That’s about it.
I wonder when Mozilla will provide free own DNS as Google does. It would be great.
@ John G.,
You can use Mullvad VPN’s free encrypted DNS instead if you wish: https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls/
You don’t need an account with Mullvad to use it.
@TelV, thanks for the information, it seems very interesting.
DNS requires quite an infrastructure when processed independently.
Concerning Google DNS I’d avoid their 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 given DNS resolution is truly the absolute tracker. Even a service such as DNSCrypt-proxy provides an anonymous resolution option (DNSCrypt protocol only) :
[https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy/wiki/Anonymized-DNS]
> “The mockups, which Sören Hentzschel posted on his blog, list a price of $4.99 per month or $50 per year.”
Only to know if our email has been exposed? :S
I think that there are free online services for this.
No, the Premium part checks for your data, e.g., name and birthday, on data broker sites and search engine sites. It helps you get the information removed, as these are often sold or used for tracking.
@Martin thanks for the useful additional info! :]