457-55-5462.
That’s LifeLock CEO and co-founder Todd Davis’ social security number. Do with it what you will. He’s so confident in LifeLock’s identity theft prevention service that he doesn’t care who has his personal information. “I have had many people say that I’m making the number up, but it’s the real deal,” Davis says. “We do this to prove the point that your personal information is everywhere right now, but if you make it useless, it doesn’t matter who has it because they can’t use it.”
LifeLock identifies itself as the first service in the U.S. to concentrate on preventing ID theft rather than fixing the problem once a consumer’s personal information has been stolen. For about 33 cents a day (a $10 monthly fee) the Tempe, Arizona-based company guarantees that the proactive LifeLock services will render your personal information useless to potential thieves. LifeLock even offers a $1 million guarantee for any client who has his or her identity stolen. According to the LifeLock website, “(I)f your Identity is stolen while you are our client, we’re going to fix the problem. Period. If you lose money, we’re going to re-imburse you.” The guarantee includes actual losses, lost wages, attorney’s fees and other miscellaneous costs up to $1 million.
Essentially an insurance policy against identity fraud, the LifeLock protection system is based on a combination of setting alerts on credit reports, providing notifications to clients and their financial institutions, monitoring relevant accounts, and restricting junk mail and pre-approved credit offers. Most of the steps LifeLock takes to secure clients’ identities could be performed by the individuals themselves with the proper know-how, but with LifeLock’s “one-stop shop” the process is automated. Davis offers a simple recommendation: “Make the information useless, whether you do it yourself or let LifeLock do it for you.”
Identity theft is not just a major concern for individuals. Over the past 12 months businesses or their vendors have seen identity thieves swipe 30 million employee names and social security numbers. An employer’s slight oversight may lead to the unintended exposure of employees’ personal information. Last year, for instance, Starbucks had personal information on approximately 60,000 employees contained on several misplaced laptops. To counteract potential security breaches like these, LifeLock for Business offers protection services for businesses, customers, employees, associations, universities, and companies with identity loss incidents. Also, since thieves often specifically target the seldom-used social security numbers of children, LifeLock provides a protection service for kids for just $25 a year.
“We are trying to educate consumers that your information is everywhere right now, so giving it out isn’t that much of a stretch,” says Davis. “We don’t recommend anyone doing this, but it brings out the point that we all have information floating around on public websites, at the offices of doctors and dentists, and just about anyplace you shop or live.” Davis reports that over the past two years approximately 110 million people were notified that their personal information was lost or stolen. “Everyone must understand these breaches happen every day and you do nothing to deserve it,” he adds.
For more information or to enroll in the LifeLock guaranteed identity theft prevention system visit LifeLock’s website.
Technorati tags: LifeLock, Identity Theft