Tech Teacher

Author/Source: Brian Krebs See the full link here

Takeaway

This article explains why Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, stopped working with a company called OneRep. Mozilla ended the partnership because OneRep, which claimed to remove personal information from the internet, actually owned many websites that post people’s private data online.

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Technical Subject Understandability

Beginner

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Analogy/Comparison

Imagine a company that sells you special locks for your house, but it also secretly owns a business that makes tools to pick those very same locks.

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Why It Matters

It matters because people pay services like OneRep to protect their privacy by removing personal details like addresses and phone numbers from the internet. When the company you pay to remove your data is also the one putting it online through other sites, it’s a conflict of interest. Privacy researcher Zach Edwards found that OneRep owned at least 50 other people-search sites, making it seem like they were making money from both sides of the problem.

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Related Terms

People-search sites, data brokers, opt-out services, conflict of interest. Jargon Conversion: People-search sites or data brokers are websites that gather and display private information about people, like their addresses and phone numbers. Opt-out services are companies that help individuals remove their personal data from these people-search sites. A conflict of interest happens when a company has two different goals that work against each other, like trying to help and hurt at the same time.