LifeLock, the ID protection firm that last month was hit with a $12 million fine for “deceptive advertising” has just gotten another hit to its reputation this week.
The company, which has a “$1 million guarantee,” says it will spend up to $1 million on any subscriber if the service fails to protect their ID. LifeLock costs $15 per month.
As a publicity stunt to show off the effectiveness of the product, CEO Todd Davis publicly showed off his name and social security number, while saying he is also a LifeLock member.
This week, it is being reported Davis has had his identity stolen 13 times since 2007. In 2007, Davis said: “I’m glad to take the center stage to put mine out there as example, because then we can tell people you can take steps to make this useless to criminals.”
Within weeks, Davis’ identity was stolen and a man in Georgia used his account to open an AT&T Wireless account, with a bill over $2300.
That was just the beginning, however. The Phoenix News Times is reporting that Davis has had his ID stolen at least 12 times since, with people taking out small loans, Gap credit cards, Verizon wireless accounts and even paying off their energy bills with his name.
After the report, Davis responded: “We have always said that no one can completely stop identity theft, including LifeLock. Just because we say protect, we aren’t saying prevent.”
Ouch. Why would anyone pay for your service Mr. Davis if you cannot prevent ID theft?
Result for: publicity stunt
Last night, iolo Technologies, vendors of the System Mechanic “PC-tuning” software, released a report that stated Windows 7 booted slower than its predecessor Vista and many, including our very own AfterDawn regulars felt the move was nothing more than a publicity stunt.
Today, ChannelWeb decided to experiment, and installed the System Mechanic 9 software on their test computer (32-bit Win 7, Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz CPU, 4GB RAM) and was met with some ironic results.
Without System Mechanic installed, boot-up time (from Power button to “executing a command”) was 53 seconds, including typing in a password to login. After running a “Deep” optimization of Windows Startup using the software, boot up time increased to 54 seconds, slower than before the optimization but still extremely faster than iolo’s reported startup time of 1:43 posted yesterday.
Overall, iolo’s posted times are alot slower then most reported times and begs the question of what type of computer they tested on, and with what software already installed on the machine.
Result for: publicity stunt
Just days after being hit with one of the largest fines in copyright infringement history, a lawyer for the now dead torrent search engine TorrentSpy has said the business is bankrupt and they will not be able to pay the fine.
The fine, $110 million USD, was ordered two days ago by a judge, following a high profile case brought forth by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
Because the site refused to turn over any internal documents the judge also ruled that the site can never go online again.
According to attorney Ira Rothken the owners of TorrentSpy have filed for bankruptcy protection in England “and have no appreciable assets.”
“This was a Hollywood publicity stunt,” Rothken added.
While the site is set to appeal the ruling, the MPAA says it is still going to go after the cash and hopes the ruling will serve as a reminder that they are still on the prowl.
