As stated in my previous blog post, LifeLock offers premier service in proactive identity theft protection and prevention. Ever since they opened in 2005, they are considered pioneers in the industry due to their utilization of data, science, and patented technology. According to LifeLock, 1 in 4 Americans experience identity theft at some point throughout their lives, strengthening their reasons to attract people to subscribe to their services. LifeLock now has over 4.4 million members, which may seem like a large number, but is only a fraction of the total amount of people in the United States. In 2016, according to the Insurance Information Institute, 12.7 million Americans have been victims of identity theft and cybercrime, stressing LifeLock’s reasons for their existence. The company also has over 300 enterprise clients, mainly due to their newer services offering identity theft protection and other business solutions to other companies. LifeLock offers business solutions similar to the standard membership, but also include breach solutions, employee benefits, and financial services. LifeLock does not publish their subscribers to the general public, but based on recent lawsuits and news pieces regarding the company, it seems that the company fluctuates in monthly users. LifeLock states they have over 4.4 million users, however, LifeLock has paid customers millions of dollars due to unhappy customers saying LifeLock tricked them into their services. (BNA) This can only lead me to believe those customers have terminated their membership and sought other identity theft protection services. When LifeLock first opened in 2005, the company had less than 700 employees and minimal funding. Due to these factors, LifeLock was not able to offer as much as they do now, as well as only being able to support a small amount of clients. Soon after their entry into the industry, LifeLock was able to raise over $15 million to invest in their company and support many more clients than they were able to. In 2005, only 6.6 million Americans experienced some sort of identity theft, only half of what is committed in 2016. This being said, I do not think that LifeLock has hit its critical mass yet. I do think it has the potential to do so, however. Cyberterrorism and identity thefts are becoming more prevalent in our society, and it is important that there are options to help Americans avoid such actions being committed against them. I also think LifeLock has a great position in the industry to succeed and become the primary resource for identity theft protection. LifeLock is publicly traded on the markets, and has been around longer than most identity theft services.
Regardless of the lawsuits LifeLock has been apart of in recent years, Consumer Affairs has over 2,000 reviews on the services LifeLock provides, with an overall rating of 4.5/5 stars. Most reviews are based on the customer service they received, which was extremely positive. That being said, there were other reviews that had very negative reviews on the company’s services. The services are seen to be liked and accepted by most of their subscribers, but how much longer will LifeLock be around? What separates LifeLock from the average bank and their services now? Banks do not offer any of the services LifeLock offers, but they have incorporated services similar to LifeLock to their everyday operations. As stated in my previous post, LifeLock really only notifies you when there is suspicious activity in your account, they don’t really do anything about it. Banks have now created apps for mobile banking that track your accounts 24/7. For example, Chase Bank has an app that allows me to control all of my accounts at extreme ease. Chase knows I live in New York, so when they see foreign or distant charges they don’t expect me to make, they notify me almost immediately with the information I need to know in order to make appropriate changes. Mobile banking apps also have alert settings that alert the user anytime their card is used in a purchase, even if it was them who made the purchase, just to be safe. Now that it is 2016 and more than half of the country uses smartphones, these mobile banking apps are becoming more and more popular. Not only because of the services they offer, but the reliability of the services offered. Another service LifeLock offers includes a Wallet feature. LifeLock Wallet is an app that holds a digital copy of all your debit and credit cards. The app was made to create efficiency when watching the activity of your cards. After the app turned out to be not as successful as they thought, the app was incorporate into the official LifeLock app. This type of service is similar to that of the iPhone’s Apple Pay. Digital wallets are becoming extremely popular during this digital tech era. It is so popular that several companies are trying to win the popularity contest, yet there has been no winner yet. (Gallup) Gallup also states that only 38% of users who have digital wallets that also have identity theft services find the technology having benefits. The technology is still new, however, and needs times to spread throughout the nation, and eventually the globe. As complex as these services sound, they are actually quite easy to use and understand. All it takes is the literacy to use a smartphone, download an app, and upload your information so the company can protect you in everyway that they can.
LifeLock has been around for over a decade now, and it is popular in its industry, but I don’t think it is as successful as they make it look. They have advantages over other businesses with the fact that they are traded publicly and have influence in the market. I think there is a major difference between success and popularity though. My favorite example to explain this regards the infamous Johnny Manziel. Johnny won the Heisman Trophy while at Texas A&M, the most prestigious award given in college football. After being drafted, he was found to be a “party animal” and was a complete failure in the NFL. Everyone knows who Johnny Manziel is, but he was not successful as a professional whatsoever. I think this is the same situation with LifeLock. Unlike Johnny Manziel, who will never be successful in the NFL, LifeLock has the potential to be successful due to the fact that they offer services for a crime that is becoming more and more prevalent every single day in the United States, and around the world as well. LifeLock has major potential in the future, but they must hope other companies enter the industry with better services and/or better costs to join. Regardless of the company, the service LifeLock offers will become more prevalent in the future and will be apart of everyone’s daily life.
Sources
http://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/identity-theft-and-cybercrime
http://www.bna.com/lifelock-shells-80m-n57982077654/
https://successstory.com/companies/lifelock
http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/184034/no-one-winning-battle-digital-wallet-customers.aspx
Lifelock: Identity theft prevention 