LifeLock Review

At first glance, LifeLock had an incredibly robust service for protecting identity. But when we dug around more, we found some information about the company that made us a bit uneasy about giving them our business. Would we still recommend LifeLock overall? Keep reading to find out!

LifeLock Features

With LifeLock’s highest subscription option, the company monitored our credit through the three major credit-reporting agencies: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. We got a new report every three months, but some plans received one monthly. LifeLock also watched out for anyone using our Social Security numbers, a feature that was available with every plan. However, only the Ultimate Plus plan monitored 401(k), investment account activity and applications for checking or savings accounts.

As far as the dark web goes, LifeLock watched out for:

• USPS address changes
• Crimes registries with our names
• Home titles.

If any changes occurred, they notified us.

Most importantly, if someone stole our identities, LifeLock would have reimbursed us for up to $1 million in losses, which was standard across the identity monitoring industry.

LifeLock offered the whole enchilada when it came to identity monitoring. However, our third-party website research about the company brought worrisome results.

LifeLock Privacy

Privacy was where LifeLock seemed a little iffy. In 2010, they ran into some issues with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding their lack of customer data protection and had to pay $11 million. While they said customer data was encrypted and only accessed on a “need to know” basis, the FTC determined their system was vulnerable.

The main reason LifeLock had to pay such a hefty settlement was due to false advertising. Jon Leibowitz, FTC chairman, put it bluntly,

“While LifeLock promised consumers complete protection against all types of identity theft, in truth, the protection it actually provided left enough holes that you could drive a truck through it.”

While LifeLock guaranteed it could protect its customers from identity theft, it did not actually cover every type of identity theft. For example, misuse of existing accounts, a common type of identity theft, was not protected. Neither were medical identity theft, employment identity theft, or account fraud.

No identity monitoring service could guarantee our identities wouldn’t be stolen; however, having a service in place certainly trumped having nothing at all. LifeLock’s issues sprouted from their hyperbolic advertising campaign, which ultimately damaged customer trust.

To make matters worse, in 2015, LifeLock had to pay $100 million to its customers for violating their 2010 order to stop false advertising, establish a “comprehensive security program” to protect customer data, and other missteps. Obviously, LifeLock wasn’t the most trustworthy company in the world. Naturally, we wanted to find out what personal data LifeLock stored, so we looked at their privacy policy.

Here’s what personal data LifeLock stored:

• Member and subscription information like your name, email address, etc.
• Data from cookies, including administrative, provisioning, security, usage and preference data
• Third-party data, mainly for threat intelligence
• Diagnostic information about their website and app.

Believe it or not, this was actually one of the stricter policies we’d seen from an identity monitoring service. That was important because the company is based in the United States, a member of the international surveillance alliances, and the government could legally force them to hand over customer data. The fact that they didn’t keep much was a good sign.

Plus, LifeLock offered two-factor and multi-factor authentication for its accounts, meaning we’d either have to enter a passcode sent to our mobile device or biometric data like our fingerprints to sign in. While the company ostensibly protected customer data and kept a minimal amount, we still had privacy concerns, to some extent.

Is LifeLock Easy To Use?

To set up LifeLock, we created a password and entered our basic information. Then, we entered our billing information and paid for the year. Once we made the purchase, the LifeLock dashboard appeared on our screen.

Once at the dashboard, we were asked if we wanted to add more personal information like our:

• Insurance information
• Bank account numbers
• Driver’s license number
• Credit card numbers.

Next, we reviewed the Privacy MonitorIng section. Then, with a click of a button, LifeLock showed us eight places where our personal, identifiable information was listed and gave us a chance to opt-out.

Once we clicked the blue button, we were sent to a third-party website’s opt-out page. So really, it was something we could have done for free, but LifeLock certainly made the process easier. All in all, we found LifeLock easy to use on our computer.

Things got a little confusing when it came to LifeLock’s apps. LifeLock Norton360 users were supposed to use the LifeLock for Norton360 app. People like us, who selected LifeLock on its own, used an app called LifeLock ID Theft Protection. We weren’t able to log onto LifeLock with Norton360 or the LifeLock ID Theft Protection app.

It turned out, we had to click on “Norton Sign In” below where we entered our username and password for LifeLock. This was all super confusing, but once we got into the app, it was easy to navigate.

LifeLock Subscription Options

LifeLock gave us a ton of annual subscription options. We could either buy LifeLock on its own or pair it with Norton 360, which mainly offered additional device security benefits like VPNs and secure cloud storage.

Depending on our plan, we paid anywhere from $8.99 to $34.99 a month. We were disappointed, however, that all of the fees went up after the first year. We also weren’t thrilled there were no month-to-month subscriptions.

Reimbursement and Restoration Benefits

With any plan, you’ll get reimbursed if your identity is stolen for up to $1 million, which can include reimbursement for stolen funds, personal expenses, lawyers, and experts. You’ll also have access to restoration teams or specialists who will guide you through the process.

Identity Theft Protection Benefits

No matter which plan we chose, we were alerted of any changes to our credit, dark web mentions, or if our data was involved in a breach.

While identity theft protection benefits were easy to understand, we wanted to know more about the LifeLock Privacy Monitor feature. LifeLock’s Privacy Monitor feature let us find, remove and suppress our identifiable and personal information from certain “people-search websites and Internet-based advertising companies.”

Device Security Benefits

If we wanted to try out LifeLock, we could sign up for a 30-day trial, as long as we selected the Advantage or Ultimate Plus plan. With any membership, we also had a 60-day money-back guarantee.

If we chose to buy Norton360 along with LifeLock, we got a variety of device security benefits, even secure cloud storage. These benefits were all pretty self-explanatory except for PC SafeCam, which, in a nutshell, stopped applications and malware from accessing the webcam on our computer unless we agreed to it.

LifeLock Customer Support

LifeLock was the only identity monitoring company we’d seen that offered 24/7 support over the phone and live chat.

The LifeLock App

Once we found our way to the correct LifeLock app, it was pretty easy to use. The app was where we received notifications, accessed our credit scores and reports on the go, tracked our financial activities, and more. Other LifeLock customers agreed with us: the app had a 4.6 on the Apple store and a 4.7 on the Google Play store. Brenda Handley, an Android-user, wrote in a recent four-star review,

“They always alert me if there’s a problem. I have used them for the last couple of years. So I would refer them for your security needs. They’re not expensive either. That helps.”

Recap

Given LifeLock’s past issues with false advertising and customer data, they weren’t our first choice for identity monitoring software. We felt strange giving our Social Security numbers to a company that repeatedly violated FTC orders regarding customer data privacy, which was a shame because LifeLock had such a robust feature set. However, we thought LifeLock could be good for anyone who has confidence the company has changed since its last FTC settlement in 2015.