Following revelations in March 2024 that exposed troubling conflicts of interest at Onerep, Mozilla announced this week that it will terminate its partnership with the identity protection vendor. The Firefox maker had initially signaled plans to distance itself from Onerep after investigative reporting uncovered that the company's founder maintained ownership stakes in competing people-search platforms. Despite that announcement, Mozilla continued offering Onerep's services for over a year before committing to an official exit.
The discontinuation will affect Monitor Plus, a subscription tier that provided automated scanning of data broker sites and removal of personal information through Onerep's infrastructure. Mozilla stated that its complimentary Monitor service, which integrates with Firefox's built-in credential management system, will remain available to users. The company emphasized its intention to expand privacy and security capabilities within Firefox itself, including offering its VPN service at no cost.
Subscribers currently enrolled in Monitor Plus will maintain their access through the wind-down period concluding on December 17, 2025. Following that date, active subscribers will be issued prorated refunds reflecting any remaining subscription value they have not yet used.
Mozilla explained the rationale for its decision in an official statement: "We explored several options to keep Monitor Plus going, but our high standards for vendors, and the realities of the data broker ecosystem made it challenging to consistently deliver the level of value and reliability we expect for our users."
The partnership unraveled following a March 14, 2024 investigation that documented how Onerep's Belarusian founder and CEO Dimitri Shelest had established numerous people-search operations since 2010. The reporting revealed that Shelest maintained financial interests in Nuwber, an active data broker established in 2015 that generates revenue by selling background reports. Shelest subsequently acknowledged his ongoing ownership position in Nuwber, which he had launched around the same period he founded Onerep.
Source: Krebs on Security