LifeLock Has To Pay $12 Million For Bogus Advertising, Little Actual Protection And Awful Security
from the feel-safer? dept
AdamR was the first of a few of you to point out that the FTC (along with 35 state attorneys general) has fined Lifelock $12 million for a variety of misdeeds, starting with bogus advertising. This should be no surprise to Techdirt readers, as the discussions around LifeLock have always raised a lot more questions than were answered. It kicked off with the fact that LifeLock's CEO, who proudly places his Social Security Number on ads to "prove" how convinced he is that LifeLock will protect him... was a victim of identity fraud himself. Oh, and there was also the stuff about how one of the founder's of the company had a past that involved doing bad things with the private information of his own customers. And then there was the story about how the CEO of LifeLock, after having his own identity fraudulently used, went to the home of the guy who did it to "coerce a confession."But the bigger questions were about the service itself. All it really did was put a fraud block on your credit, which you could do for free. It didn't stop people from using your existing credit cards if they had access to the information, or from taking out loans in your name (which is what happened to the CEO) -- even though its advertisements implied you'd be safe from such situations (which are more common than someone taking out a credit card in your name). Oh, and then there was the fact that the fraud reports that Lifelock would put on accounts were found to be illegal.
All that looks pretty bad -- and it gets worse as you read the details of the FTC slapdown. There was the questionable advertising, which went beyond just false implied promises -- to sending out letters that tried to claim that the recipient's info "wasn't safe" as a scare tactic. On top of that, apparently, LifeLock itself wasn't particularly secure with how it handled its customers private information. This fact looks even worse when you realize that LifeLock would prey on firms who had recently had data breaches, and suggest they sign up customers for a "free" year of LifeLock -- thereby putting their data at risk yet again. Not only was the data not properly handled, but LifeLock falsely claimed that the data was encrypted and only authorized employees would have access. Neither turned out to be true. Basically, it sounds like rather than protect your identity, LifeLock put you at greater risk.
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Filed Under: identity theft
Companies: lifelock
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Say it ain't so...
He should get fined too!!
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Re: Say it ain't so...
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Re: Re: Say it ain't so...
I was gonna go to court, before I got high.
I was gonna pay my child support, but then I got high.
But the judge was not so understanding.
(is that fair use or am I going to get sued by Afroman now?)
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To their credit though: it's hard to stop dedicated thieves.
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It's easy to say data is encrypted
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Re: It's easy to say data is encrypted
That's not true if they did their job properly. Properly implimented encryption will NOT allow that.
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Don't forget the ControlScam slapdown too
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Talk Radio Never Lies
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What's so bad about a company trying to help victims?
However this settlement is over advertising that the FTC claims was misleading to consumers for the period March 2005 to April 2008. And for issues the FTC had with their services during their earlier days. Not their current services. It is very old news and the service they offer today -is far superior than what they offered in earlier days.
Now, if you want to talk about aggressive marketing, no one can beat the singing pirates: f.r.e.e. spells free baby -not! Yet remarkably, the FTC went after them with spoof videos!
http://www.givemebackmycredit.com/blog/free-credit-reports/
Over the years identity theft has grown -and so has LifeLock -for the better! They have not only continued to create new and innovate products and services -but they have turned to advance technology and began tapping into ways that a consumer can NOT utilize to protect themselves. What's so wrong with that?
They continue to educate consumers and work with law enforcement communities via free seminars throughout the country and build partnerships with an array of victim organizations and security minded professionals.
Unlike the credit bureaus, we actually have a choice whether or not we want to utilize their services. I am proud of Lifelock’s proven commitment to consumer education and the law enforcement communities. I know that they will continue doing what they already do extremely well: finding new ways to reduce the risk and lessen the impact of fraud. And we should too.
Now having said that, in the interest of full disclosure, LifeLock has paid me to speak at their free identity theft seminars as one of their Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialists. To be clear, I get paid to talk about identity theft, I don’t get paid to promote LifeLock.
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Yes, READ
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Fraudsters
Today the problem is companies issuing easy credit to the fraudsters. Then these companies are bailed out with government funds (our money), or they help write onerous laws locking us into a lifetime of debt we didn't incur.
It would help if the law against asking people for their SOC SEC was actually enforced. Phone companies and the like shouldn't be asking for it....
That was my .02, I'm broke now.
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Bogus
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Re: Bogus
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Re: Bogus
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scare tactics
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