IDShield Review: Identity Protection Online and Beyond

IDShield Privacy and Security

IDShield protects our personally identifiable information online, but to do that, we have to give the company our information. The question now is, can we trust IDShield? After all, it is an Oklahoma-based company, which means that the government could squeeze out all the information that IDShield has on us, under very specific and unlikely circumstances. That’s because the good old U.S of A is part of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes alliances. Members of these international surveillance alliances have laws that could force companies to hand over customer data. Now, keep in mind that every single service on our best identity theft protection list hails from the U.S., so IDShield isn’t unique in this way. However, if privacy is a number one priority, this is the type of information you should know about.

So what information does IDShield keep, anyway? When we tested IDShield, it kept the information that we provided, including our:

• Names
• Addresses
• Payment information
• Social Security numbers

That may seem bad, but again, IDShield needed those pieces of information so it could protect our identities. Aside from those, however, IDShield collected data whenever we visited its website or whenever we communicated or transacted with the company or its affiliates. According to the company’s privacy policy1, IP addresses and cookies were some of the types of data it collected. That’s a bit more than necessary, but not by much, given that a lot of the other identity protection services we tested collected the same information, if not more. Overall, we’d say that IDShield’s privacy policy is as solid as it gets in the identity protection industry.

We also liked that IDShield allowed us to use Touch ID on our iPhones, on top of our four-digit passcode, when logging into the IDShield app. Basically, IDShield’s multi-factor authentication made sure that we were the only people who could access our IDShield apps.

How Does IDShield Protect Your Identity?

So what did we pay for exactly when we enlisted IDShield’s services? Primarily, IDShield monitored our identity and credit, which included monitoring for:

• Credit Scores and Reports: We invested in the Three Bureau plan so we got updates from all three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. We got our credit score monthly and an updated report annually. Should you choose the One Bureau plan, IDShield will monitor your TransUnion credit scores and reports only.
• Social Security Numbers: Believe us, someone else using your Social Security number isn’t a good thing. Fortunately, IDShield used what it calls SSN Skip Trace to detect when someone besides ourselves were using our SSNs.
• Dark Web Monitoring: The dark web is where cybercriminals sell and buy stolen passwords and credentials2, so IDShield scanned it to make sure our information stayed off the dark web.
• Public Records: Did you know that there are 78 billion public records in the United States? IDShield scanned them for our personal information, which, if we entered it all, amounts to 34 different pieces of data, from our names to our addresses to our Social Security numbers.
• Court Records: On top of that, the U.S also has over 350 million court records, all of which IDShield monitored to make sure our information didn’t show up. This included local, state and federal courts, the Department of Corrections, and more. We all want to maintain our squeaky clean records, and IDShield made sure that criminals weren’t using our names when committing crimes.
• Payday Loans: If someone tried to get money quickly using our information, IDShield was on it, monitoring payday, online, and rent-to-own loans.
• Username and Password: Once we entered the usernames, passwords, and credentials of our important online accounts onto the IDShield app, it made sure they didn’t pop up anywhere else online.
• High-risk applications: IDShield monitored databases of new financial account applications, and let us know of potentially fraudulent new accounts under our names.
• Address Changes: Someone trying to get our mail? Not so fast. IDShield monitored the U.S Postal Service to make sure we’d get alerts if anyone requests to change our addresses using our names.
• Child Monitoring: We didn’t sign up for the family plan, but if you’re a parent and you got a family plan, your children will get the same identity monitoring features as you. IDShield can protect your kids from child identity theft, which is a more serious issue than some might think.
• Sex Offender Tracking: This isn’t something we want to think about, but it’s great that IDShield told us exactly where the sex offenders in our neighborhood lived, along with some useful information about them. Now we know when to cross the street and when to keep walking on our path.
• Telecom: IDShield monitored phone records, over 1.5 billion to be exact, to see if someone had been redirecting our phone numbers to theirs and stealing verification SMS meant for us. Most identity monitoring services don’t include this feature, so kudos to IDShield.
• Social Media: We put more information than we need to on social media sometimes. That’s why we’re glad that IDShield scanned our social media profiles and posts for information that could put our privacy at risk. That included home addresses, email addresses, birthdays, and Social Security numbers.

Aside from identity monitoring, IDShield took it a step further with features that didn’t only make us safer, but also got rid of some of the junk in our lives, literally:

• Trifecta of digital protection: IDShield partnered with Trend Micro to provide us with three vital digital security features: anti-malware protection, VPN, and password manager. These products cost about $8 a month if purchased separately, so it’s really great that IDShield included them free of charge. We’ve reviewed Trend Micro’s antivirus, so check that out if you want to see how well it works.
• Solicitation Reduction: Junk mail and telemarketing calls may seem like minor annoyances, but actually, they contain a lot of our personal information. IDShield did its best to reduce such solicitations, which left our voicemails and physical mailboxes much less cluttered.
• Deleting Data Brokers: Websites like Whitepages and Spokeo contain tons of personal information, which they then sell to third parties, mostly for advertising purposes. If you don’t believe us, just Google your name and see what comes up! After we bought IDShield, however, it removed our information from these types of websites, otherwise known as data brokers.
• Medical Data Reports: Some more information we’d like to stay private? Our medical data. IDShield had our back, scanning medical data reports for false or even fraudulent information.
• Anti-Bullying Protection: Only included in family plans, IDShield helps protect kids against cyberbullying, which affects about 22 percent of kids in the U.S from ages 12 to 18.3
• Reputation Management: The cancel culture has gotten so bad that netizens dig up reputation-damaging posts even from 10 years ago. We don’t remember every little thing we’ve posted online. Luckily, IDShield scanned our social media for posts and comments that contained colorful language and images so we could delete them. Remember those pics from Spring break in Cabo? IDShield will catch those.
• Unlimited Consultation: If we had any questions or concerns at all, IDShield’s identity theft specialists were available for as much time as we needed.
• Licensed Private Investigators: IDShield, like every identity monitoring service, can’t completely prevent identity theft from occurring. So if it does occur, the company would help us out, giving us licensed private investigators to help us get our identities back. These investigators will be available at all times, even in the middle of the night and Christmas. Talk about full coverage!
• $1 Million Protection Policy: Aside from support, we got an identity theft insurance policy that could reimburse us for up to a million dollars if our identities were stolen. This coverage is the standard maximum, so we’re glad to see that IDShield offers competitive policies.
• Lost Wallet Support: Finally, if we ever lose our wallets, our investigators could help with that, making sure our identities are safe should our wallets end up in the wrong hands.

All of these features are what we look for exactly in identity monitoring services, covering everything from criminal areas like court records to our financial accounts. But how much did it set us back?

IDShield Subscription Options

IDShield offers individual and family plans with the option to select between single- and triple-bureau credit monitoring. Here’s how everything breaks down:

Like we said above, IDShield’s subscription options are very straightforward. All plans include all the monitoring features we mentioned above. The only differences were the number of people each plan covers, and the number of credit bureaus each plan monitors. Individual plans provide coverage for a single adult, while family plans cover two adult individuals plus up to 10 dependent children. As we were all single and childless, we chose from the individual plans. Next, we chose how many credit bureaus we want to monitor. One-Bureau plans monitor TransUnion credit scores and reports only, while Three-Bureau plans monitor TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. As we want the best coverage, we got the Three Bureau plan.

All in all, we spent $19.95 a month on the Three-Bureau individual plan, pretty average compared to other companies. To make things even better, we didn’t pay for the first month, thanks to IDShield’s 30-day free trial. Now, as for the family plans, starting at $25.95 a month, we think they are reasonable considering the number of people they cover. For a family of 12, that’s only a little over $2 per month per person! To learn more, read our IDShield pricing page.

The IDShield App

Of course, we’re not at our desktop computers all the time. Sometimes we wanted to monitor our identities and credit scores on the go, so we downloaded the IDShield app from the App store. As soon as we logged in, we turned on Touch ID as well as made a four-digit passcode, which made sure that we were the only ones who could log in. After skipping an app tutorial, we found ourselves on the home page with two new alerts.

When we clicked on the alerts, we found that we had to activate social media and sex offender monitoring again.

Since we already did this on the desktop version, this felt a bit cumbersome. Fortunately, it was easy to sync our social media with IDShield and enter an address from which to monitor sex offenders.

But aside from that, the app is easy to use, with all of the options accessible on the left-hand side tab.

We could access our credit scores and even a monthly tracker easily, as well.

So although setting up the IDShield app’s features was a little redundant since we already set those up from our browser dashboard, the app itself was straightforward and well-designed in general. It wasn’t as intuitive as the app we used when we reviewed Privacy Guard, but it’s worth noting that good mobile apps aren’t always a given with identity monitoring services. For example, we ran into a few bugs with the LifeLock mobile app, so we relied on our laptops more heavily when we tested LifeLock. And when we pivoted to our IdentityIQ review, a lesser-known service, we found no mobile app at all. It’s also worth noting that despite the inconveniences we experienced with IDShield’s app, it has some of the highest app ratings we’ve seen in identity monitoring services. It holds a 4.8 stars rating, both on the App Store and Google Play.