Submitted by R. Neal on Wed, 2010/03/10 - 10:03am

FTC: LifeLock ordered to pay $12 Million to settle charges that identity theft prevention and data security claims were false:

The FTC and state settlements with LifeLock bar deceptive claims, and prohibit the company from misrepresenting the "means, methods, procedures, effects, effectiveness, coverage, or scope of any identity theft protection service." They also bar misrepresentations about the risk of identity theft, and the manner and extent to which LifeLock protects consumers' personal information. In addition, the settlements require LifeLock to establish a comprehensive data security program and obtain biennial independent third-party assessments of that program for twenty years.

The Attorneys General of Alaska, Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia participated in this settlement.

The settlement will distribute $1 million to state attorneys general and $11 million to consumers. Now, what is the government doing about actual, you know, identity theft?

RELATED: FTC on Identity Theft: Deter, Detect, Defend, Avoid

48
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bizgrrl's picture

I'm not surprised to find out

I'm not surprised to find out about these charges against LifeLock, except that this is the first I can remember hearing about any charges. I hated LifeLock's commercials and did not believe much of anything they said or promised.

R. Neal's picture

I'd heard before that they

I'd heard before that they mostly do stuff you can do yourself, like putting fraud alerts on your credit reports, and that the only real value is the $1 million in protection, which is basically insurance.

Here's an article about it...

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