LifeLock is an identity protection solution firm that provides services that help to identify and prevent the misuse of customer’s information. However, the company has faced several scandals regarding its operations and the efficacy of this protection service.
Historical Background of the Founding and Early Disputes
LifeLock was founded in the year 2005 by Robert J. Maynard Jr. and the other co-founder is Todd Davis. The company began to gain much popularity, and Maynard and Davis for instance used actual social security numbers in LifeLock advertisements to affirm the effectiveness of their services.
But soon this large advertising turned into a major problem. A case in point that highlights this was when an investigative journalist duplicated Todd Davis’s identity in 2007 to expose LifeLock’s inefficiency. A few more mishaps occurred in the subsequent years to present that unrelenting identity fraudsters could still breach the customers’ credit reports and open fake accounts, even with the LifeLock shield.
This paper focuses on the Federal Trade Commission allegations, which stand as the main claim from the EU against Google.
Later in March 2010, LifeLock was in trouble again with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which accused the company of false advertisement of its products. The FTC alleged that LifeLock misled consumers regarding the importance of their services, often overemphasizing the existence and imminence of identity theft threats. In addition, the FTC accused LifeLock of deceiving consumers by saying that it could shield them from identity theft while in reality, the offered services are only capable of tracking the credit reports and transactions once they have been committed.
In March of 2010, LifeLock settled with the FTC to pay a penalty of $12 million over allegations that the company failed to correctly implement the security features it was offering to its customers. Scammers also settled not to continue with the advertisement of the program while LifeLock also agreed to adjust its claims and offer more realistic details about its services.
Ongoing Monitoring Issues
Although the company agreed to the FTC on the settlement, customer concerns were still raised about LifeLock not delivering the full range of services it was advertising. According to an analysis of complaints made between 2012 and 2015, LifeLock enrolled customers could become victims of identity theft while being under LifeLock protection.
Many incidents followed a similar pattern: criminals would likely be able to obtain loans/credit cards under the identity of a LifeLock customer. The fraud would only get detected when the customer discovered it on his or her own or else when LifeLock resent the alert which could take weeks or even months. By then a lot of destruction had already taken place.
Despite these issues, the FTC re-opened the case against LifeLock in December 2015 and filed another complaint against the company. This time the agency fined LifeLock $100 million for breaching the provisions of the agreement it signed in 2010. The FTC said that LifeLock had grossly violated the basic requirement to put in place sufficient measures to protect customer identity as advertised.
Acquisition by Symantec
As the credibility of LifeLock continued to be questioned, the company entered into an acquisition by Symantec, one of the biggest cybersecurity firms in February 2017. With this acquisition, Symantec committed $2. 3 billion to integrate LifeLock’s identity protection solutions into Norton’s suite of security software.
During the period in question, Symantec provided comments about its plans to turn LifeLock into a much more credible product. According to the sources, Symantec has dedicated substantial effort and money to the overhaul of LifeLock solutions and infrastructure. Nevertheless, there are certain indents that some observers still do not trust LifeLock concerning the prevention of identity theft based on its records.
Ongoing Legacy
However, months after being acquired, LifeLock still faces criticism for its past business practices. Most of them have shifted to the company’s co-founder, Todd Davis, who proudly used his Social Security number in advertisements for many years.
Experts in identity theft have stated that Davis had potentially exposed himself to a lifetime of identity theft due to the actions that he took. It is also alleged that the criminally inclined individuals have not lost appetite and continue to steal Davis’s identity even to this date. Since his data is exposed in a manner that is quite different from most workers, Davis could be a candidate for identity theft issues in the future.
The controversy between LifeLock and its customers is a perfect example of events that took place in the identity protection industry. Consumers get the picture that even with total monitoring services; they cannot be fully protected from identity theft. It reminds businesses of the need to engage in clear communication with consumers, proper marketing, and constant enhancement of the product to meet the purported capabilities that a company wants consumers to have. As a relatively new company, LifeLock is now part of the Symantec company; however, its dubious past will probably haunt it for years to come.
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