Mozilla targets scummy data brokers with Monitor Plus removal service

“You may be shocked to find,” the people-search websites pitch, that you or the other person you’re searching for “has a criminal record.” Other sites offer “millions of records that expose” a person for who they “really are.”

These kinds of “people search” sites are myriad. They copy from one another, and removing your information from them, while technically possible in fine-print fashion, could take days or weeks. Mozilla, the Firefox maker expanding into a suite of privacy-minded tools, has an alternative to clicking and hoping.

Mozilla Monitor Plus, just launched today, pledges to automatically monitor such "people search" sites, along with known data breaches, for your information and then take care of the removal process. The "Plus" version costs $14 if you go month by month, or $108 for a year's subscription (about $9 per month). You can still get a free scan on Monitor to see the data breaches and data brokers where Mozilla finds your information (used with Mozilla's fairly human-readable privacy policy).