“I get it. My affiliation with a people search business may look odd from the outside,” Shelest’s statement reads. “In truth, if I hadn’t taken that initial path with a deep dive into how people search sites work, Onerep wouldn’t have the best tech and team in the space. Still, I now appreciate that we did not make this more clear in the past and I’m aiming to do better in the future.”

“Who better to fix the problem than me, it’s creator!” He’s not exactly wrong, it is possible to reform and become an industry leader combating the issue you were once guilty of doing yourself. There are countless examples of that throughout the history of the tech space. However, you absolutely cannot hide that kind of background if you are looking to operate in the privacy and cybersecurity sectors. Doing so is incredibly shady and not the behavior of someone who’s turned white hat.

Mozilla had no option but to walk away immediately and I’m glad they did. They can’t afford to have this stink on their reputation. It’s unfortunate that this information’s only come to light now though.