Todd Davis didn't post his social security number publicly because he thought his company could protect it. He did it as an advertising gimmick that netted him almost 2 million paying customers. At least, I have to assume that's what Todd's motivations were because I'm guessing he's not an idiot and knew his service wouldn't actually prevent ID theft. Even if he were, there have been so particularly telling clues recently such as:

1. Having his own identity robbed 13 times since the stunt began.
2. The 12 million dollar settlement with the FTC over false advertising relating to their gross misrepresentation of being able to prevent ID theft.

That's why when an employee's sensitive data showed up online, they worked to have it removed. No one should have their social security number posted publicly because the risk is too great. Unless of course you're the CEO of a company that charges $10/month to almost 2 million people and can afford any amount of ID theft you're hit with.

For those that are bad at math, that's 20 million a month income. Makes that $12 million settlement seem kind of inconsequential doesn't it?

Tags: Identity Theft, Lifelock, Todd Davis

I'm not surprised about the fine, just that it took this long. Of course, they'll just shrug it off and any other lawsuit so long as they make more money than they spend.

Sadly, by the time someone actually shuts Lifelock down (if ever), the people responsible for it will be so rich that it won't make any difference. But until then, we can feel a little happier knowing that there are some organizations that are making them pay for their dishonesty; although 12 million dollars is less than one month of Lifelock's income on their almost 2 million reported customers.

Tags: Identity Theft, Lifelock, Todd Davis

I have been challenging the value of Lifelock for a while based on the fact that they claim to prevent ID theft, but can't. It looks like several other people have come to that conclusion and are busy suing him for as much of his millions that they can get. The problem is that even with CNN, Wired, and Yahoo finally getting around to spreading the word, Lifelock is still going very strong. Even though I've been chasing lifelock postings around on the net and posting comments letting people know the truth, I don't think my efforts are going to amount to much in the long-run. That's why I've decided to challenge Todd Davis directly. He's obviously a showy type that feels comfortable challenging others so now it's time to turn the tables. I've looked into Lifelock's features and found them useful, but far from worth the money spent. But with only one feature addition, that could all change. So let's get to it: So there you have it. What are the odds that he'll actually respond? We shall see… Tags: Identity Theft, Lifelock, Todd Davis

I can't stand these companies that take advantage of a problem to make some money. Lifelock is that company where the CEO posted his Social Security Number with a challenge to take his identity (which someone promptly did). If you've been considering getting the service, wait. First realize what you're paying for. If you were to go to their site and read through what they actually do, you'll find that you're not getting much for your money.

1. They place fraud alerts. The problem is, fraud alerts are worthless and do absolutely nothing to protect you from ID theft.
2. They renew the fraud alerts every 90 days. Note that this isn't actually a separate benefit, but they sure seemed to want to have six benefits to their service instead of just five.
3. They remove your name from pre-screened credit card offers. You can do it yourself, freely, and quickly at optoutprescreen.com. Also note that Lifelock fails to mention that this is a one time benefit and not something that you should be paying monthly for.
4. They order your credit reports once per year which is easy for them becuase they can use the free annual credit report you are due by law. The bad part here is that if you wanted to use the very clever advice of getting your report from one of the companies every four months so you can keep a semi-constant tab on your credit, you can't. Lifelock blew your free coupons all at once.
5. They'll keep a list of the companies you have credit cards and such with so you can quickly call them if your wallet is stolen. The FDIC has a great guide about how to do this yourself including the advice to carry a bare-minimum of cards and information and to make your own call-down list.
6. Lastly, insurance.

So to sum up, they give you useless fraud alerts and will renew said useless alerts on a regular basis. They'll order your federally mandated free credit reports for you saving you a whopping 20 minutes of time per year. They put you on a list that prevents many pre-screened offers which is a one-time 5 minute cost to them. They'll keep a list of all the companies you should contact if you lose your wallet though if you have so many to contact that it's that hard for you to do yourself, I'd be more concerned about the number of credit cards you have. And of course, they're an insurance provider. When all is said and done, Lifelock is nothing more than credit theft insurance with little more benefit. And rather than pay a monthly fee for insurance, you are far better off getting a Credit Freeze which actually does protect against ID theft rather than just try to clean it up after the fact. Factor in that a freeze is a fraction of the cost of insurance (and free in some cases), Lifelock just doesn't have a leg to stand on. Let's hope the hype dies down soon and we can watch Lifelock drift into business oblivion. The sooner the better. Tags: Identity Theft, Lifelock, Todd Davis