LifeLock, which for years has touted its identity theft services, is doing big business in the wake of the Equifax data breach. And they are not shy about capitalizing on Equifax’s woes.
But as first reported by the L.A. Times, LifeLock has a little secret buried in its terms and conditions:
“You consent and authorize LifeLock and its Service Providers, including but not limited to Equifax, to access your personal credit information in order to (i) confirm your identity, (ii) display your credit data to you related to your use and enjoyment of the product and (iii) provide your Equifax credit data to LifeLock so that LifeLock may create and deliver to you, certain fraud alert products.” [color added for emphasis]
That’s right, LifeLock buys some of its services from Equifax, the very company that had a breach that LifeLock’s protection services are trying to alert you about.
The L.A. Times story also notes that LifeLock may share personal information with Equifax including information not normally found in Equifax’s files such as your driver’s license number, passport number, and your email address.
I don’t find it all that surprising. If you think about it LifeLock has to go to one of the three credit reporting agencies to get that information. It just happens to be equifax. As for sharing data. There would be no way for L.L. to get your info, from the reporting agencies, if they don’t provide the information you give to them so they can give it to the reporting agencies. All L.L. does is do the leg work for you in getting the information from the agencies and then re-reports it with a little bit of monitoring while charging you a feel for the conveniance.
We got LifeLock as a result of an office break-in some years ago where the thieves stole a computer that accessed payroll information. I kept LifeLock after the company-paid year. It’s okay with me for them to pull info from my credit report to see what they need to watch (I actually consented to that feature), but I’m not happy to learn that they share my information with Equifax, especially in the wake of the Equifax breach.
Many newspaper articles say that you should put a security freeze on your credit file. That is great advice, but you should also tell the credit agencies to not give out your name for marketing purposes. I did that years ago and, as a result, don’t credit card offers any more.
Lifelock lists 3 specific things that they will share with Equifax and other service providers, but I am wondering how many “service providers” Lifelock has.
It’s okay to share this information with a credit reporting company, but who else does Lifelock supply the information to?
These corporate vultures are always happy to prey on the misfortunes of others. Just say No to Life-less-Lock blood suckers.