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In March 2024, Mozilla said it was winding down its collaboration with Onerep — an identity protection service offered with the Firefox web browser that promises to remove users from hundreds of people-search sites — after KrebsOnSecurity revealed Onerep’s founder had created dozens of people-search services and was continuing to operate at least one of them. Sixteen months later, however, Mozilla is still promoting Onerep. This week, Mozilla announced its partnership with Onerep will officially end next month.

Mozilla Monitor. Image Mozilla Monitor Plus video on Youtube.

In a statement published Tuesday, Mozilla said it will soon discontinue Monitor Plus, which offered data broker site scans and automated personal data removal from Onerep.

“We will continue to offer our free Monitor data breach service, which is integrated into Firefox’s credential manager, and we are focused on integrating more of our privacy and security experiences in Firefox, including our VPN, for free,” the advisory reads.

Mozilla said current Monitor Plus subscribers will retain full access through the wind-down period, which ends on Dec. 17, 2025. After that, those subscribers will automatically receive a prorated refund for the unused portion of their subscription.

“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,” Mozilla statement reads.

On March 14, 2024, KrebsOnSecurity published an investigation showing that Onerep’s Belarusian CEO and founder Dimitiri Shelest launched dozens of people-search services since 2010, including a still-active data broker called Nuwber that sells background reports on people. Shelest released a lengthy statement wherein he acknowledged maintaining an ownership stake in Nuwber, a data broker he founded in 2015 — around the same time he launched Onerep.

CNN
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A 13-year-old in Ohio has died after “he took a bunch of Benadryl,” trying a dangerous TikTok challenge that’s circulating online, according to a CNN affiliate and a GoFundMe account from his family.

Jacob Stevens was participating in a TikTok challenge with some friends at home when he ingested the antihistamine, the family donation account states. Jacob was on a ventilator for almost a week before he died, according to WSYX.

CNN has not independently confirmed his cause of death.

Overdosing on Benadryl can result in “serious heart problems, seizures, coma, or even death,” the US Food and Drug Administration said in a 2020 warning to the public about the deadly “Benadryl Challenge” on TikTok.

CNN takes over a 14-year-old’s TikTok account. 17 minutes in, this is what we saw

CNN takes over a 14-year-old’s TikTok account. 17 minutes in, this is what we saw

Jacob’s grandmother is doing anything she can “to make sure another child doesn’t go through” with the challenge, she told CNN affiliate WSYX.

In a statement to CNN, TikTok said, “Our deepest sympathies go out to the family. At TikTok, we strictly prohibit and remove content that promotes dangerous behavior with the safety of our community as a priority. We have never seen this type of content trend on our platform and have blocked searches for years to help discourage copycat behavior. Our team of 40,000 safety professionals works to remove violations of our Community Guidelines and we encourage our community to report any content or accounts they’re concerned about.”

The maker of Benadryl, Johnson & Johnson, has called the challenge “dangerous.”

“We understand that consumers may have heard about an online ‘challenge’ involving the misuse or abuse of diphenhydramine,” the undated online statement reads.

“The challenge, which involves ingestion of excessive quantities of diphenhydramine, is a dangerous trend and should be stopped immediately. BENADRYL® products and other diphenhydramine products should only be used as directed by the label.”

“We are working with TikTok and other social platforms to remove content that showcases this behavior,” the statement added. “We will look to partner across industry and with key stakeholders to address this dangerous behavior.”

CNN has reached out to the Stevens family and Columbus Public Health for comment.

The FDA’s 2020 warning said the agency had “contacted TikTok and strongly urged them to remove the videos from their platform and to be vigilant to remove additional videos that may be posted.”

Benadryl is an antihistamine used to treat symptoms such as a runny nose or sneezing from upper respiratory allergies, hay fever or the common cold. It’s safe and effective when used as recommended, the FDA said.

“Diphenhydramine is marketed under the brand-name Benadryl, store brands, and generics. It is also available in combination with pain relievers, fever reducers, and decongestants,” the agency said.

Consumers and parents should store Benadryl and other over-the-counter medications and prescription medicines out of the reach of children, the FDA said.

CNN
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The Fulton County District Attorney’s office said some fake electors for Donald Trump have implicated each other in potential criminal activity and is seeking to disqualify their lawyer, according to a new court filing.

The district attorney’s office is requesting that attorney Kimberly Bourroughs Debrow be disqualified from representing a group of 10 Republicans who served as electors for the former president in Georgia – a state Trump lost to President Joe Biden. The DA’s office also accused the lawyer of failing to present an immunity deal to her clients last year, according to the filing.

The new filing offers the latest indication that immunity offers could still be in the works months after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis suggested charging decisions were “imminent.”

It notes that investigators interviewed some of the fake GOP electors this month and there is jockeying behind the scenes ahead of the announcement on who, if anyone, will face charges in the long-running probe into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

“The statement of some of her clients that directly implicate another client in additional crimes shows that Ms. Debrow’s continued participation in this matter is fraught with conflicts of interest that rise to the level of her being disqualified from this case in its entirety,” the district attorney’s office wrote in the filing.

During the April 2023 interviews, “some of the electors stated that another elector represented by Ms. Debrow committed acts that are violations of Georgia law and that they were not party to these additional acts,” according to the filing.

Amid a fight last year to compel the fake electors to testify, the court instructed two attorneys, including Debrow, to inform their clients with potential immunity deals. The attorneys told the court that they spoke to their clients and none of the clients were interested, according to filing. Now the DA’s office is claiming those offers were never presented to the clients.

“Additionally, in these interviews, some of the electors represented by Ms. Debrow told members of the investigation team that no potential offer of immunity was ever brought to them in 2022,” the filing states.

Debrow slammed the latest motion in a statement.

“The DA’s Motion is baseless, false, and offensive,” Debrow said. “None of my clients have committed any crimes, and they necessarily have not implicated themselves or each other in any crimes.”

No one has been charged yet in the Georgia case, though several people – including the 16 fake electors and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani – were informed they were potential targets of Willis’s probe.

A special grand jury investigating the matter concluded its work late last year and recommended more than a dozen people should face charges, the foreperson for the panel said in interviews.

This story has been updated with additional information.