Even though there are many ways to improve your privacy in the online world, once your personal data is out there, it is quite tricky to get deleted. Sure, many websites now provide ways to request the deletion of your data, thanks to recent reforms in the form of the GDPR or the CCPA.
But, when your data lands in the hands of third parties, you never know how it may be handled by them, or the people who work for them. And more often than not, your data ends up with a data broker, who will then most likely sell it to whoever pays them.
This is where Mozilla has brought in a new offering called Mozilla Monitor Plus that aims to provide users with a paid tool to easily remove personal information from data broker sites.
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Mozilla Monitor Plus: What to Expect?
Building on their existing Mozilla Monitor (formerly known as Firefox Monitor) tool, Mozilla is now offering a new Plus tier for complementing it with additional capabilities.
In addition to searching for where your personal data might have been exposed, with Plus, you can now set Mozilla Monitor to automatically remove your personal information. Not just from a couple of sources, from over 190 data broker sites that Mozilla claims to be “twice the number of other competitors”.
As shown in the official demo above, Plus has been integrated directly into the existing Mozilla Monitor dashboard, with some new options to play around with.
Some key highlights of Mozilla Monitor Plus include:
- Continuous Monitoring
- Automatic Data Removal
- Over 190+ Data Brokers
The interesting part is, Mozilla Monitor and many of its competition use Have I been Pwned's database for checking for security breaches.
However, this value added service is a great choice for those looking to have an intermediary for handling the deletion of their personal data across a broad range of data brokers.
There are other services that provide similar capabilities, such as Privacy Bee and Incogni, and Mozilla has now entered that space with their new product.
On the launch, Product Manager at Mozilla Monitor, Tony Amaral-Cinotto had this to add:
When we launched Monitor, our goal was to help people discover where their personal info may have been exposed. Now, with Monitor Plus, we’ll help people take back their exposed data from data broker sites that are trying to sell it.
Sadly, at the time of writing, Mozilla Monitor Plus is only being offered in the US, and others around the world will have to wait. We are not sure when they intend to roll it out globally.
For those in the US, you can head over to the official website to get started with Mozilla Monitor Plus.
The pricing for Mozilla Monitor Plus stands at $107.88 for the annual plan that comes out at $8.99 per month with a claim of 35% savings compared to the monthly plan that costs $13.99.
Do keep in mind that when you check out, additional taxes and fees will be levied that will take the yearly plan to $118.99 and the monthly plan to $15.43.
If you ask me, a tool like this is essential in this day and age, where a person's personal data is sold off for pennies, potentially opening the door for damages that could easily cause some real harm.
For learning more about this tool by Mozilla, you may refer to the official announcement blog.
💬 What do you think? Would you opt for tools like this if you could?
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