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I think Mozilla's heart was in the right place here, but pretty disappointing that they didn't vet their partner more thoroughly than what some GMU grad student

I think Mozilla's heart was in the right place here, but pretty disappointing that they didn't vet their partner more thoroughly than what some GMU grad students were able to uncover. Also makes me wonder what other shady connections fellow services might have, waiting to be uncovered. Looking at you, popular podcast sponsor, DeleteMe!

slvrspoon 3y ago
Co-founder DeleteMe here. Been building and delivering privacy tools and chatting on HN for 15 years. Happy to answer questions but please easy on unfounded accusations :)
IntToDouble 3y ago
Puzzling they chose to partner with Onerep when Kanary was part of Mozilla's incubator and is just a fundamentally stellar service.
- ckozlowski 3y ago
  Can you share more?
  - IntToDouble 3y ago
    In terms of the incubator, looks like it was replaced with Mozilla Ventures: https://builders.mozilla.community/ https://builders.mozilla.community/ https://builders.mozilla.community/old/alumni.html https://builders.mozilla.community/old/alumni.html With respect to Kanary, I have my entire family the platform and it's drastically reduced the amount of garbage (figurative) that comes through our door. Needed help with something non-standard the CEO personally took care of things while learning more about our specific use case.
    - griffinkelly 3y ago
      Second the recommendation for Kanary. Formerly had a lot of inbound spam, has seriously cut it.
- throwanem 3y ago
  "Puzzling" is a good description of just about every business decision Mozilla has made over at least the last decade. People complain about the Google search deal and I get why, but I've been using the browser since back when it was called Phoenix, and at this point I'm pretty sure the Google deal is the only reason it's still alive. The engineering is still solid; its stewardship seems anything but.
donmcronald 3y ago
> Also makes me wonder what other shady connections fellow services might have, waiting to be uncovered. This is why it's so important to require disclosure of beneficial owners for all companies. The world is filled with people that will poison you just so they can sell you an antidote, or, better yet, life long treatment.
jqpabc123 3y ago
... pretty disappointing that they didn't vet their partner more thoroughly Kinda like partnering with Google while promoting Firefox as the "privacy browser".
- arp242 3y ago
  I assume you're referring to the default search engine deal? What influence does that have on Firefox's privacy features? How does it make Firefox not a "privacy browser"?
  - Terretta 3y ago
    > What influence does that have on Firefox's privacy? Don't you mean on your, the user's, privacy?
    - arp242 3y ago
      Well, more like "Firefox's privacy features". I'll edit to clarify.
  - dotnet00 3y ago
    Kinda skews their incentives heavily when that deal represents a large chunk of their revenue
    - arp242 3y ago
      Why would it? Harvesting data is not even Google's entire revenue, and Google would be phenomenally stupid to mess with Firefox, because if that would get out it's major anti-trust headaches waiting to happen. What specifically did this influence, or is likely to be influenced? What specifically is made worse by this? There's always these vague accusations, but never any specifics.
      - jqpabc123 3y ago
        By default, Firefox makes it real easy to uniquely identify and track you, refuses to block ads and apparently, don't care much about marketshare. Wonder why? Details are readily available if you know how to search.
wolverine876 3y ago
> pretty disappointing that they didn't vet their partner more thoroughly than what some GMU grad students were able to uncover What did it take for them to uncover it? Generally speaking, GMU grad students may have have more time and plenty of expertise. When those grad students leave school and get jobs at Mozilla, they may be too busy to go down rabbit holes looking for long shots.

slvrspoon 3y ago

Co-founder DeleteMe here. Been building and delivering privacy tools and chatting on HN for 15 years. Happy to answer questions but please easy on unfounded accusations :)

IntToDouble 3y ago

Puzzling they chose to partner with Onerep when Kanary was part of Mozilla's incubator and is just a fundamentally stellar service.

ckozlowski 3y ago
Can you share more?
- IntToDouble 3y ago
  In terms of the incubator, looks like it was replaced with Mozilla Ventures: https://builders.mozilla.community/ https://builders.mozilla.community/ https://builders.mozilla.community/old/alumni.html https://builders.mozilla.community/old/alumni.html With respect to Kanary, I have my entire family the platform and it's drastically reduced the amount of garbage (figurative) that comes through our door. Needed help with something non-standard the CEO personally took care of things while learning more about our specific use case.
  - griffinkelly 3y ago
    Second the recommendation for Kanary. Formerly had a lot of inbound spam, has seriously cut it.
throwanem 3y ago
"Puzzling" is a good description of just about every business decision Mozilla has made over at least the last decade. People complain about the Google search deal and I get why, but I've been using the browser since back when it was called Phoenix, and at this point I'm pretty sure the Google deal is the only reason it's still alive. The engineering is still solid; its stewardship seems anything but.

donmcronald 3y ago

> Also makes me wonder what other shady connections fellow services might have, waiting to be uncovered. This is why it's so important to require disclosure of beneficial owners for all companies. The world is filled with people that will poison you just so they can sell you an antidote, or, better yet, life long treatment.

jqpabc123 3y ago

... pretty disappointing that they didn't vet their partner more thoroughly Kinda like partnering with Google while promoting Firefox as the "privacy browser".

arp242 3y ago
I assume you're referring to the default search engine deal? What influence does that have on Firefox's privacy features? How does it make Firefox not a "privacy browser"?
- Terretta 3y ago
  > What influence does that have on Firefox's privacy? Don't you mean on your, the user's, privacy?
  - arp242 3y ago
    Well, more like "Firefox's privacy features". I'll edit to clarify.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  Kinda skews their incentives heavily when that deal represents a large chunk of their revenue
  - arp242 3y ago
    Why would it? Harvesting data is not even Google's entire revenue, and Google would be phenomenally stupid to mess with Firefox, because if that would get out it's major anti-trust headaches waiting to happen. What specifically did this influence, or is likely to be influenced? What specifically is made worse by this? There's always these vague accusations, but never any specifics.
    - jqpabc123 3y ago
      By default, Firefox makes it real easy to uniquely identify and track you, refuses to block ads and apparently, don't care much about marketshare. Wonder why? Details are readily available if you know how to search.

wolverine876 3y ago

> pretty disappointing that they didn't vet their partner more thoroughly than what some GMU grad students were able to uncover What did it take for them to uncover it? Generally speaking, GMU grad students may have have more time and plenty of expertise. When those grad students leave school and get jobs at Mozilla, they may be too busy to go down rabbit holes looking for long shots.