TrustedID is uniquely positioned in the world of identity protection. While many companies focus on protecting individuals, TrustedID has a slight lean towards the corporate world. They do offer one protection program for private individuals, but their other services focus on data breach defense and an ID protection service meant to be deployed as an employee benefit. Here is a look at each tier TrustedID offers.
IDEssentials
IDEssentials provides ID monitoring, a unique "threat score" system, and a host of other features, for $16.99/month. In addition to the threat score, a Facebook monitoring system also sets IDEssentials apart. All in all, it's a pretty comprehensive package at a pretty reasonable rate. Some other notable features include:
- 3-Bureau credit monitoring and an Equifax 3-Bureau credit report
- Online access to credit scores from the 3 major bureaus using the Equifax score model
- Identity monitoring that searches the Internet for your SSN, credit card numbers, full name, phone number, home address, email address, and insurance records
- "Threat Score" that gives you an easy-to-understand breakdown of the type, amount, and source of your publically-available information online and how at-risk it leaves you for identity theft
- Monitoring of black market Internet sites of your personal information
- Help with requesting medical benefits statements so you can track transactions and make sure that you aren't following victim to medical identity theft
- Lost wallet protection to help you replace your credit and debit cards, insurance information, and more in case you ever lose your wallet
- Fraud alerts to protect your identity by requiring lenders to verify your ID before issuing new credit (they'll even remind you to renew them every 90 days)
- Junk Mail Reduction by stopping pre-approved credit card offers and helping you get your name off of the most frequently-used marketing databases
- $1 million identity theft insurance policy
- Assistance from "protection specialists"
- Facebook privacy monitor that checks your profile and your privacy settings to warn you if your personal information is at risk
Family Plan
TrustedID’s family plan doesn't offer any new features, but it does encompass a pretty liberal definition of "family" compared to other companies. While the credit score and report are limited to two adults, other protections can extend to yourself, your spouse, older parents sharing your household, your child, and any other relative under your roof -- for just $29.99/month.
IDAssure
TrustedID also offers services for companies to enroll in. This can be offered to employees as part of a benefits package, or offered to customers in the wake of a data breach. Because of the scale of these services, you have to request a quote for them, but they offer a decent amount of services considering they're blanketing a huge group of people:
- Black market Internet scanning
- Free annual credit report
- Fraud alert placement
- $1 million ID theft insurance
- Access to protection and identity restoration specialists
- "Timely" notifications
- A dedicated account team and custom branding for the company that hires them
Data Breach Defense
For companies who experience a data breach, IDAssure is just one part of a larger protective package that TrustedID offers. If a company offers ID theft protection after a huge leak of data, it may well be TrustedID helping them with that. They'll also help manage communication for you. Here's what companies can expect:
- Set-up of a customized website and hotline for potentially affected customers to call
- Mailing notifications to potentially affected customers
- Recommend best practices for communicating to those customers, as well as the press, the employees, law enforcement, and more
- Reports of telephone calls and registrations, so that you know how many people are actually taking you up on the services.
Innovations like the threat score and the Facebook privacy monitoring are intriguing, and if TrustedID delivered on these ideas 100% of the time, they'd likely be at the head of the pack. But given the number of people who talk about not receiving notifications, having difficulty canceling, or being billed after canceling, it's hard to offer a hearty endorsement.
