Identity theft is a big business for cybercriminals. LifeLock tries to limit the damage from this kind of identity fraud by providing users with theft monitoring tools and insurance for potentially stolen funds.
As a subsidiary of cybersecurity giant Norton 360, our expectations for the service are sky-high. But can they deliver? In this LifeLock review, we put the identity theft protection tool to the test. Keep reading to see where it stands.
LifeLock Mini Review
LifeLock offers extensive monitoring for identity theft. You receive alerts when any sensitive information is discovered, and you can get up to $1 million of stolen funds reimbursed. Add Norton 360 antivirus to your package, and you’ll enjoy additional antivirus and VPN services.
Note:
LifeLock is primarily designed for customers in the United States. People outside of the U.S. can still subscribe to LifeLock but won’t be able to use the credit monitoring services or receive certain parts of customer support.
What We Like
- Extensive identity, credit, and financial accounts monitoring
- Get alerts when suspicious activity is detected
- Up to $1 million of stolen funds reimbursed
- Dashboard is easy to navigate
- Can be combined with Norton 360 antivirus, cloud storage, and VPN
What We Don't Like
- Higher-tier packages are expensive
- Does not monitor all businesses; undetected identity theft still possible
- Users outside of the United States miss out on the most important LifeLock features
- With multiple LifeLock/Norton apps it can be confusing to find the right one
- Only the most expensive plan offers monitoring for all credit reports
When testing LifeLock, we found that the identity, credit, and financial accounts monitoring services work well. LifeLock will alert you immediately if your personal data has been breached or has ended up on the dark web.
The Privacy Monitor feature also keeps an eye on data broker sites, though you do have to request removal yourself or use a data removal service.
Overall, LifeLock is easy to use. One of the only downsides is that its partnership with Norton results in having different apps available for different users, which can be a bit annoying. Another downside is that LifeLock is on the expensive side; the less you’re willing to pay, the more at-risk you’ll be.
Even so, if you’re looking for peace of mind, LifeLock will greatly improve your online security. Thanks to its “Norton 360 with LifeLock” plan, you get access to an identity theft protection tool with a wide range of features.
Features: What Does LifeLock Do?
Let’s be clear about one thing: LifeLock doesn’t prevent identity theft. However, it provides extensive monitoring for compromised identity data, credit information, or financial accounts.
When testing the identity theft protection, we noted the following things:
- LifeLock monitors the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.
- When any activity involving your personal information is detected, LifeLock will alert you.
- The dark web monitoring feature scans the dark web for your private information.
- LifeLock sends alerts on any crimes committed in your name.
- LifeLock offers insurance against financial loss; if your money is stolen due to identity theft, you may be reimbursed.
Disclaimer:
Not all businesses are monitored by LifeLock. Therefore, undetected identity theft can still occur. The best way to avoid identity theft is by restricting the information you share on social media and other websites or services.
Identity monitoring
LifeLock can’t prevent identity theft from occurring, but its identity monitoring features scan online areas where you’re at risk of falling victim to identity theft. There are different types of data that you can scan the web for, as seen in the image below.
LifeLock monitors the following areas for signs of this data:
- Dark web: Should any of your private information appear on the dark web, LifeLock will notify you.
- Criminal registries: A sign your identity could be compromised is if your name shows up in court orders or sex offender registries.
- Data breaches: LifeLock keeps an eye out for data breaches to inform you if your information has been exposed.
- USPS address changes: To get their hands on important financial documents, criminals might intercept your mail or try to change your address.
If any suspicious changes occur in these areas, LifeLock will notify you right away. It monitors for signs of identity theft, so you can respond accordingly.
Credit and financial accounts monitoring
To protect your finances as much as possible, LifeLock will notify you of any strange cash withdrawals, transfers, or large purchases. The provider will also notify you when a new account is created in your name.
Credit monitoring is also provided for Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. This is definitely one of the better features that LifeLock offers! You’ll receive credit reports and score updates both on a monthly and daily basis.
Keep in Mind:
Only the Ultimate Plus package offers all three bureaus. The lower-tier plans monitor only one credit bureau.
Should you wish to freeze your credit and protect your private data, LifeLock can assist you.
For TransUnion, LifeLock will do the work for you. With Experian and Equifax, you’ll need to notify the bureaus yourself and ask them to lock your accounts.
Reimbursement and insurance
Should you experience any loss of funds as a result of identity theft, LifeLock will reimburse you. The amount depends on your subscription package.
- Standard: Up to $25,000 in stolen funds reimbursed
- Advantage: Up to $100,000 in stolen funds reimbursed
- Ultimate Plus: Up to $1 million in stolen funds reimbursed
All plans also include a coverage of $1 million for legal expenses. One of the downsides of LifeLock is that the less you pay for your subscription, the more financial risk you have to be willing to take.
If this bothers you, you may want to consider Aura, which offers the same stolen funds reimbursement amount for all its clients should you ever become a victim of identity theft.
Alerts
During testing, we found the alerts for potential identity threats to be accurate and timely. We received notifications regarding leaked passwords for a few sites.
Once you receive an alert, LifeLock asks you to verify your identity, and you’ll be able to see the exposed password.
Should your identity be compromised in any way, LifeLock provides clear instructions for identity restoration.
Privacy Monitor
The Privacy Monitor feature is designed to limit the public exposure of your private data. To do this, LifeLock scans data brokers and people-search websites to locate your information.
A feature like this gives you more control over your online privacy. When testing, our private data was found on nine data broker sites.
One thing to note is that you still need to do the work of actually requesting data removal. LifeLock will only do it for you at an extra cost.
If you don’t want to bother with that, we recommend Incogni, an excellent data removal service.
Additional Norton 360 services
LifeLock can’t prevent identity theft from happening, but it has partnered with Norton to improve your online security as much as possible.
Norton, most well-known for the Norton 360 antivirus solution, offers a range of additional features to your LifeLock subscription:
- Antivirus software: Protects your device against malware
- Secure cloud storage: Lets you store your personal records safely
- Virtual private network: Encrypts your internet traffic and allows you to browse the web anonymously
- Password manager: Protect your accounts with securely generated passwords
LifeLock and Norton 360 can be purchased separately, but can also be combined in a packaged subscription service. Scroll down to see an overview of the different plans available.
How Much Does LifeLock Cost?
LifeLock offers various subscription plans, depending on your needs and wants. You first have to decide if you want a stand-alone LifeLock subscription or combine LifeLock with Norton in the Norton 360 Plus LifeLock plans.
For all packages, you can choose to pay monthly or annually, as well as whether you need individual or family coverage. Let’s take a closer look.
LifeLock subscription packages: an overview
If you want an identity theft protection service and not much else, choose one of LifeLock’s stand-alone plans:
- LifeLock Standard: $89.99 annually ($7.50/month) or $11.99 monthly
- LifeLock Advantage: $179.88 annually ($14.99/month) or $22.99 monthly
- LifeLock Ultimate Plus: $238.88 annually ($19.99/month) or $34.99 monthly
These are the prices for individual coverage. You can also choose a Family Plan for two adults or two adults plus five children.
It’s also good to note that if you pay at once (that is, on an annual basis) you’ll enjoy a 60-day money-back guarantee rather than the standard 30-day trial period.
How do the plans differ from one another? Have a look at the table below!
| Feature | Standard | Advantage | Ultimate Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | From $11.99/month | From $22.99/month | From $34.99/month |
| Identity & SSN monitoring | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Credit monitoring | ✔ (Equifax) | ✔ (Equifax) | ✔ (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) |
| Dark web monitoring | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Privacy Monitor | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Reimbursement | Up to $25,000 | Up to $100,000 | Up to $1 million |
| Legal coverage | Up to $1 million | Up to $1 million | Up to $1 million |
| Identity Lock | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Alerts on crimes in your name | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Credit reports and scores | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ |
| 401(k) & investment account activity alerts | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Home title monitoring | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Social media monitoring | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ |
Norton 360 Plus LifeLock plans
You can also combine LifeLock identity protection with Norton 360. You’ll get a better value-for-money ratio on the combination packages:
- Select: $99.48 annually ($8.29/month) or $14.99 monthly
- Advantage: $149.99 annually ($12.50/month) or $24.99 monthly
- Ultimate Plus: $199.99 annually ($16.67/month) or $34.99 monthly
For all plans, the LifeLock coverage is identical to the standalone packages.
The additional Norton 360 features include a VPN, an ad tracker, parental controls, a password manager, malware protection, and a SafeCam for Windows PCs. You can use these Norton 360 features on up to five devices.
Privacy: How Does LifeLock Treat Your Data?
Of course, we examined LifeLock’s privacy measures in detail. A company that deals with a lot of sensitive data will surely adhere to a high privacy standard, right?
Unfortunately, we did find some issues. Let’s get into it!
What data does LifeLock collect?
LifeLock collects a variety of personal data about you, including:
| Category | Data |
|---|---|
| Account | Name, address, email, phone number, user credentials, date of birth (also goes for children) |
| Payment | Billing address, credit/debit card info, National ID, VAT/Tax ID |
| Identity | Age, gender, address, email, bank account information, insurance information, Social Security Number |
| Communications | Audio call and chat recordings |
| Device | Operating system, device name, browser, network, applications running on device, mobile device IDs |
| Service | License information, usage data, browser activity, URLs accessed, network activity |
| Security | Financial transactions, URLs and websites visited, executable files identified as malware, interface and screen activity, search terms |
| Location | Precise geolocation data of your device, IP address, time zone |
| Network Traffic | Sender email addresses, recipient email addresses, reply-to email addresses, filenames and execution paths, URLs and associated page titles, IP addresses, browser information |
While LifeLock needs a certain amount of information to do its job, it still requires a huge amount of private information. This brings down our opinion of their privacy handling significantly.
LifeLock is also based in the US, which is part of the Eyes Alliance, meaning the data LifeLock collects can easily be shared with other countries.
On the plus side, LifeLock does offer multi-factor authentication for logging into your accounts. The use of passcodes or biometric data keeps your accounts more secure.
Want to stop using LifeLock? If you delete your account, all associated data will be deleted along with your account, which is also another plus in our book.
LifeLock controversies
When digging a little bit deeper into LifeLock’s past, we did find some issues. While we’ve seen that LifeLock has improved its services since then, these past issues still raise cause for concern:
- 2010: LifeLock was ordered to pay $12 million by the Federal Trade Commission for its lack of data protection.
- 2015: LifeLock was ordered to pay $100 million for falsely advertising a service offering a 100% guarantee against “all forms of identity theft.”
- 2022: LifeLock’s servers were breached. As a result, the personal details of over 6,000 user accounts had their private information disclosed.
Ease-of-Use: How User-Friendly is LifeLock?
Ideally, any online service you use is quick to install and easy to use. Let’s see how LifeLock fared in our testing for this LifeLock review.
Dashboard overview
LifeLock offers a web-based desktop app as well as a mobile app.
Once you start your membership, setting up your account is straightforward. The first time you log in, you’ll see your My Norton dashboard. From here, you can fine-tune features.
The dashboard is easy to navigate and walks you through each step to complete the account setup process. For identity monitoring to work, you first have to submit your data.
When you finish uploading your personal data, LifeLock operates behind the scenes. No additional input is required; you can simply monitor your dashboard periodically or rely on alerts sent to your mobile phone.
If your subscription includes Norton 360, you’ll see the option to download antivirus and malware protection for your devices. You will also see an option to download the VPN or start using cloud backup services.
Mobile app overview
LifeLock’s mobile app is easy to use and has the same features as the desktop version.
You can navigate through the app via the menu. It’s all very easy and straightforward! No complaints here.
Customer service
LifeLock offers 24/7 support over the phone and through live chat.
In the past, we didn’t have the best experience with customer service, but it seems LifeLock has improved its services over time. Once we verified our identity, the live chat offered useful support.
Conclusion: Do We Recommend LifeLock?
Identity theft is not something that only happens to someone else. Services like LifeLock can provide you with financial insurance, legal coverage, and early warning alerts in case your private information gets compromised.
We recommend LifeLock for users who are willing to pay extra for identity theft protection services. LifeLock’s higher-tier plans are the most feature-rich. On top of that, adding Norton 360 to your package offers you a lot of extra benefits.
There are also some drawbacks. In this LifeLock review, we discovered that LifeLock is not a very privacy-conscious provider and that it has been heavily fined in the past. More importantly, if you’re not in the United States, many of the features (including SSN monitoring) will not be available to you.
LifeLock is best suited for users who are looking for early detection and insurance against financial losses.
Still shopping for identity protection services? Check out our other reviews:
- Aura Review: Comprehensive Identity Theft Monitoring Software
- Identity Guard Review: User-Friendly Identity Theft Monitoring
- McAfee Identity Theft Protection Review: Is It Worth It in 2024?
If you didn’t find what you were looking for in our LifeLock review, check out the most commonly asked questions we get about LifeLock below.
The services offered by LifeLock are comprehensive, but not all-inclusive. LifeLock does monitor all the major U.S. credit bureaus and offers other features that can detect identity theft quickly and alert you.
LifeLock also offers insurance against financial losses related to identity theft. This makes it a reasonable service for anyone who wants this type of protection.
If you are concerned about becoming a victim of identity theft, using a third-party monitoring service for suspicious use of your identifying information offers peace of mind. LifeLock is on par with similar services in the protection it offers.
The combination with Norton 360 makes identity theft protection a lot more preventive, so a combination package offers the best value-for-money.
LifeLock monitors a variety of sources for evidence of identity theft. It’s particularly effective for U.S. citizens, since it uses your social security number to monitor for compromised information.
On top of this, LifeLock offers assistance in resolving identity theft and provides varying levels of insurance against financial losses.
