The Trust Foundation Understanding trust issues in the digital era.

A string of recent lawsuits raise questions about whether or not it's possible to expect any service to be capable of protecting a user's identity from theft, and in particular, raises questions about the marketing that currently is used by companies offering such services. More here, my summary below:

Users of the Lifelock identity theft protection service are suing Lifelock, alleging that the company is using deceptive advertising principles and that ultimately their service does not work, especially in light of the fact that there have been dozens of attempts at stealing or misusing the identity of Lifelock founder Todd Davis, who himself uses Lifelock. For example, someone managed to take out a $500 loan using Davis' information, and people applied for or received a driver's license using Davis's information at least 20 times. Lifelock is also being sued in Arizona over claims that it's $1 million service guarantee is deceptive, and in California over deceitful marketing practices and data access abuses.

Quoting from the Associated Press article:

"There's been a lot of marketing, a lot of hype about LifeLock," said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy with the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. "The question is, 'How much protection does it really buy you?'"

"There is no company that can guarantee they can protect you (completely) against identity theft," Stephens said. "Absolutely nobody can do that."