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LifeLock Agrees To Pay $100 Million Fine In Settlement With FTC (nytimes.com)
New submitter dasgoober writes: Lifelock has agreed to pay $100 million to settle charges that it failed to properly protect user data, the F.T.C. announced on Thursday. This is the second settlement between the company and federal authorities. In 2010, the F.T.C. charged the company with failing to provide strong security measures for personal data. "This settlement demonstrates the Commission's commitment to enforcing the orders it has in place against companies, including orders requiring reasonable security for consumer data," F.T.C .Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in a statement. "The fact that consumers paid Lifelock for help in protecting their sensitive personal information makes the charges in this case particularly troubling."
The commercial, it said they would protect me and help me? They are expert, the radio ad said they could stop the bad guys!
"The settlement does not require us to change any of our current products or practices.
Or maybe not.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
"F.T.C .Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in a statement. "The fact that consumers paid Lifelock for help in protecting their sensitive personal information makes the charges in this case particularly troubling."
Repeated slap on the wrist punishments and no jail time is what is particularly troubling here and continues to be.
And I don't know why we accept this bullshit at our own expense when this is the repeated outcome. What is it going to take to get corporations to act properly and ethically these days?
Guess that will never happen. Instead, we watch our corrupt government to turn a blind eye to anti-monopoly laws and allowed corporations to invent Too Big to Fail instead, which is the legal cousin of "affluenza", in case you were left wondering just how fucked that corporate concept really is.
you gotta pay to play
In a sense, this is protection for the gullible from themselves; admittedly more necessary than one might like to imagine.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Actually, the legal name of the company is LieFlock.
Ha ha ha ha ha...errrr, I mean, "Gosh, that's terrible!"
Serves them right for making claims that they couldn't possibly hope to fulfill.
"We'll keep your identity safe!" ranks right up there with "Lose 50lbs overnight guaranteed!"
And then on top of that, they practice shitty in-house security, making it all the more likely that your data will be stolen and misused? Brilliant.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Look, there are always going to be a lot of gullible people with too much money.
PT Barnum said a fool and his money is parted easily.
If not this, it would be something else. Google up "See Clearly Method".
Homeopathy, magnets, horoscopes, tattoos, lottery tickets, alternative medicines with unlikely claims are the past times of some people.
You can't outlaw stupid.
I hope everyone knows you can freeze your own credit pretty well buy simply paying $10 to the three nationwide credit reporting companies. It is a cheap way to add a layer of protection. Just don't lose your contact info or you might have a rough couple of years with frozen credit ;D
As a victim of Identity Theft, I know first hand that you can't avoid the "stolen personal data" portion of Identity Theft. Somewhere, someone is going to store your SSN, DOB, and other information in an insecure database or some disgruntled employee will grab your information (along with a thousand other people's) and sell it to someone for some extra cash. It's sad, but it's getting to be nearly a certainty. (13.1 million victims in 2015, 12.7 million in 2014.)
LifeLock isn't real protection once someone gets your data. To really protect yourself, you need to freeze your credit files. This prevents anyone (you or the identity thieves) from opening new lines of credit on your account. Of course, that also means that you can't open that credit card or refinance that loan without first thawing your credit file (and paying each of the three major credit agencies). Still, it's better than having a collections agency knock down your door because "you" ran up $10,000 in charges and then didn't pay the bill.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
A company that mission is to product your identity failing to protect it's own customers data. Thats irony.
As most people know by now, OPM was hacked recently and lots of names and SS#s were compromised. Mine included. My letter from OPM includes a sob story from an OPM director of some sort that starts with empathy: "Don't feel bad, I'm a victim too!".
Then the OPM generously offers three years of credit monitoring. THREE MEASLY FUCKING YEARS.
I want THIRTY years of credit monitoring. Or LIFETIME credit monitoring. What's preventing some assholes out there from waiting three years and a day before fucking over my credit history and leaving me in an economic lurch?
Of all organizations, the OPM should be held to a higher standard. Anyone know of a class-action suit or anything?
Their whole business is a scam. Having to pay a percentage of the profits in fines still means they retain a percentage.
It's the whole "the fine is less than the gains" crap. Why isn't there a minimum of 120% the realized/expected gains on the fines to corporations.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
The govenment fining the company and keeping the money just makes the company have to charge more and/or cut service for a given fee, adding insult to injury.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
...when 22 million records of personal information including SSNs of federal employees were stolen? How much did the United States government fine the United States government for failing to protect private data held by the United States government?
Is this how Lifelock should have done business?
This company has never, ever given a damn about its customers!