FTC Accuses LifeLock of False Advertising Again

An anonymous reader writes: You may remember LifeLock — it's the identity protection company whose CEO published his social security number and dared people to steal his identity. Predictably, 13 different people succeeded. LifeLock was later sued for deceptive marketing practices, and eventually settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to the tune of $12 million. Part of that settlement, of course, required that they refrain from misrepresenting their services in the future. Now, the FTC is taking action against them again, saying they failed to live up to that promise. The FTC claims (PDF) LifeLock falsely advertised that it "protected consumers' sensitive data with the same high-level safeguards as financial institutions" and also failed build systems to protect the data they held.

Comments

Thats kinda strange

[invictusvoyd]

LifeLock was later sued for deceptive marketing practices

Marketing by nature is deceptive . You never sell what you sell but you create the need ( more often than not artificial) for people . How many car advertisements actually talk about the car?

Re:Thats kinda strange

[rmdingler]

I believe in this case, the company was caught once failing to deliver on promises of increasing personal security.

That naturally put Life Lock on the prosecutors' radar. Then, instead of cleaning up their act, the misleading ads continued.

This is precisely what law enforcement is supposed to be doing. Lifelock? Well, they're malevolent, incompetent, or both.

Re:Who needs Lifelock?

[Anonymous Coward]

Providing SS numbers, credit card numbers, bank info and personal info to Lifelock actually may make a person less safe.

Many will say that this is bad advice but

[Anon-Admin]

Back in 2000 the company I worked for "Accidentally" put everyones info (HR Database) on the public FTP site. Including Bank account info, all the security questions, ss#, salaries, etc.

At that time I looked into "Protecting" myself from identity theft and realized there was an easy solution.

1) Run my credit into the ground. Someone stealing an identity does not want to clean up your credit. They want an easy target.
2) Pay off all my debts. Believe it or not, paying off your debts without creating new ones lowers your credit score.
3) Live off what I make! No credit cards, no loans, no credit.

Now, 15 years later, I have 4 cars, a boat, 12.5 acres in the country, and a house. I got the home loan before I did all of this and it is the only debt I have left. The rest was saved for and I paid cash for them.

It is amazing how much cash you have when you are not loosing 12%, 15%, or 25%, to interest on loan payments.

Re:Many will say that this is bad advice but

[wonkey_monkey]

Back in 2000 the company I worked for "Accidentally"

Terrible name for a company.

Unless it's an emergency dentist. Chipped a tooth? Call Acci-dentally on 0800-OWMYMOUF

Re:Many will say that this is bad advice but

[drinkypoo]

1) Run my credit into the ground. Someone stealing an identity does not want to clean up your credit. They want an easy target.

DOES NOT WORK, because of credit scams. The way it worked in my case was that a Mexican with a car dealership in a town with corrupt courts (Nevada City, CA) gave credit personally to someone he knew didn't deserve it, who defaulted on the loan. That person was using my name and SSN. Their "evidence" of SSN was a check cashing card with the SSN written on it. Then he sold it to a corrupt collection agency in the same town. Now they're harassing me. They have the documentation in hand to see that the loan was granted without any evidence that the person actually had a legitimate social security number, but they still want to harass me. I haven't gotten around to going in and seeing them. I'm sure not faxing them any of my personal information.

What marketing actually is

[sjbe]

Marketing by nature is deceptive

Not true. Marketing done well is VERY honest with customers. You can lie in marketing but that doesn't mean marketing is nothing but lies. Marketing fundamentally is about creating and maintaining a relationship with a customer. It's not actually about selling the product - not directly anyway. You have a product and you are trying to find a way to communicate the existence and benefits of that product to others - that is marketing. Along side that you are communicating with potential customers about who you (the seller) are and what you are about. At its core that is all marketing is - developing relationships. You'll note that lying is no way required to do that and frankly it is largely counterproductive in the long run.

People don't buy Coca-cola because Coke Inc is lying to people about what it is and frankly they don't really need to lie about it. Sure they are selling flavored carbonated sugar water but they are also selling a brand which is intangible but clearly valuable to many people. Lying in marketing is kind of like a guy falsely claiming to be a doctor to pick up a girl in a bar. It might work but it isn't likely to last. While it is possible to lie in marketing and be successful for a time with it. But that does not mean that marketing is intrinsically deceptive.

Marketing is not the same thing as sales. Sales is the actual act of convincing someone to buy a product or service. Marketing is developing a relationship with a customer and an awareness of the product. Those things are related but are different stages in the process.

Re:What marketing actually is

[drinkypoo]

People don't buy Coca-cola because Coke Inc is lying to people about what it is and frankly they don't really need to lie about it.

Bullshit. If you really believe that, you know less than half as much as you think you do about marketing and advertising. Coke runs plenty of advertising which is intended solely to improve the image of their brand. If they deserved a positive image, they wouldn't have to run "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" song ads. Factual advertising would be printing a list of ingredients on a poster and slapping it on the wall. Instead they've come up with all this "Coke is It" crap, if that's not a lie then I don't know what it is. Coke isn't it! It's just Coke. "Ah, but wait" their lowest life forms (lawyers) will argue, "we're not making specific claims! And in certain circumstances, Coke is It! And they'll get to continue making these bullshit specious statements which are intended to deceive.

You picked a spectacularly horrible example. The only thing worse would probably be Monsanto. They do stuff that kills people, they know it kills people, they've been doing it for decades, and they run commercials to tell you about all the good stuff they're doing like it fucking matters. Would you still lock up a serial killer if he gave to charity? Shit yes, you would. You'd do it in a heartbeat. But Monsanto isn't yet a smoking hole in the ground. And in part, that's because of their advertising. Same with Coke, only writ much smaller.