LifeLock Launches New Protection Services in Response to Recent Ruling in Experian Lawsuit

(UPDATED below) A federal judge on Friday appeared to deliver a blow to both LifeLock and consumers when he ruled that LifeLock may not continue to set fraud alerts on behalf of consumers. But it appears that while Experian was busy trying to stop LifeLock from harming their profits, LifeLock was busy working on finding new ways to stop identity thieves from harming consumers. 

According to the FTC, identity theft costs Americans more than 1.8 billion, (with a b) and their latest report indicates that complaints have grown by 80 percent since 2000. With these numbers, I'm glad that someone is focusing on how to combat the real problem -identity theft. And how to best help consumers avoid it.

 Experian sued LifeLock in February 2008 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California arguing that LifeLock's practice of setting fraud alerts on behalf of consumers, violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, costing them millions of dollars.

Today, in response to the Judge's ruling LifeLock released a press release along with the below video sharing their news of newly developed services that they claim include "some of the most sophisticated technologies available, including scientific modeling and multi-point data mining to identity fraud." I can't help but wonder, if those who may have hoped for this ruling, now have second thoughts. Could LifeLock be proving that what doesn't kill you -makes you stronger?  It does look that way.  

The truth is, companies like LifeLock, and even their competitors, offer consumers convenience and much needed assistance in both protecting and recovering from identity theft. This ruling is no doubt bad for consumers -but the good news is, at least LifeLock is continuing to look towards finding new and creative ways to protect consumers while being part of the solution -and not the problem.    

 Please note that this blog was written in 2009. My views on identity theft protection services have greatly changed, as did the services offered, the policies and less than transparent partnerships. In an effort to ensure these older blogs don't mislead readers, please take time to check the date of any blog relating to identity theft protection services. Anything dated pre-2012 that has not been updated, should NOT be considered as an accurate portrayal of today's informed opinions.