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Government Privacy Security The Almighty Buck United States

LifeLock Agrees To Pay $100 Million Fine In Settlement With FTC (nytimes.com) 50

Posted by samzenpus from the pay-to-play dept.
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."
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LifeLock Agrees To Pay $100 Million Fine In Settlement With FTC More

LifeLock Agrees To Pay $100 Million Fine In Settlement With FTC

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  • Guess they learned their lesson (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EzInKy ( 115248 ) on Friday December 18, 2015 @08:44AM (#51142519)

    "The settlement does not require us to change any of our current products or practices.

    Or maybe not.

    • "The settlement does not require us to change any of our current products or practices.

      Or maybe not.

      Who gives a shit either way, they deserve a quick corporate death at this point. Let's hope that consumers are smart enough.

      Any current or potential customer who trusts them enough to pay for their service is as ignorant as LifeLock is about security.

      • The sad part is, most of them will never have heard of this, and the very few who have won't pay enough attention that it will spur them to action.

        Consumer ignorance is the greatest force in modern economics, I fear.

    • My question is, do the users of LifeLock see any of this money? I am guessing not.

      It sort of seems like a huge cash cow for the government to just sue organizations and collect a settlement but not make them change anything... then rinse and repeat.

      It would seem to me that this doesn't create a lot of incentive for the government to actually "fix" policies as it is in their interest to keep the system broken so they can keep the cash flowing.

      And they say government should be run more like a business...

  • We're left with "particularly troubling" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Friday December 18, 2015 @08:48AM (#51142531)

    "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.

    • This shouldn't be surprising - the job of governments throughout history has been to privatize gains and socialize losses. That's why governments grant corporations in the first place, by definition. If people would look at historical outcomes instead of the platitudes espoused by seventh-grade government schoolteachers we could start making some real progress towards a civil society.

      Oh, but hey, we have microwave ovens and jet airplanes, so we're somehow smarter than the other humans in history so THIS

    • 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

      Because any politician who supports sending corporate criminals to prison will be accused of supporting "big government" and will be voted out of office.

      • 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

        Because any politician who supports sending corporate criminals to prison will be accused of supporting "big government" and will be voted out of office.

        Ah, "big government" is already here, has been here, and a Congress full of politicians isn't gonna change that shit, so that excuse is dead already.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Lifelock is not a monopoly, Lifelock is not too big to fail. Not sure what the government's involvement should be. If you think they are a corrupt company that is incompetent, don't do business with them. Is that too difficult for a "big government" guy to get? If your claims are true, tell others and if you are successful, Lifelock will shut down due to lack of customers. No government involved.

      I'm more worried about Obamacare. It is a monopoly, too big to fail, incompetently run, and corrupt as hell

      • You obviously don't know that there is no such thing as "Obamacare" in terms of it being either a policy you can buy or an entity (never mind not a monopoly) that sells it.

        Or you do know and you're then obviously a deliberate liar.

        The PP&ACA, AKA the ACA, AKA Obamacare, is a set of laws and regulations about privately-run non-government health insurance policies, with a requirement that most people have to purchase something from their choice of competing (mostly for-profit) companies.

        There are lots of

      • Not sure how well basic economicincentives work when your customer base is by definition a self-selecting set of gullible people in the first place...

      • But yes, LifeLock should die in a fire.

        (LifeLock the company, and a "virtual fire"; not advocating violence!)

        As much as I hate the whole Credit Bureau system and concept, at least if you deal directly with TransUnion, Equifax, Experian, ChexSystems, you're dealing with the companies that actually hold and control your credit files. Why the hell would anyone pay a third party service and turn over so much person sensitive information control to an unnecessary service like LifeLock?

        Rhetorical question. Answer

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by KGIII ( 973947 )

          Not long after selling my business and retiring, I did a few simply stupid things like mention how much I'd sold for, who I had donated to, what I planned on doing, etc... Well, someone knew me well enough to scoop my data and dox me. It was kind of invasive because they used that information to post my tax information. I guess, you know, that's kind of legal and all that. My tax information can be found easily enough.

          The good thing is, the doxxing party did not want to be a complete prick. (I guess they fi

    • What is it going to take to get corporations to act properly and ethically these days?

      Guess that will never happen

      Simple: People need to stop giving their money to corporations that do bad shit. Good luck getting that point across. "Consumers" are called such because they have no other mode to choose from: CONSUME is their only setting. Source: I'm a gamer. The last 5 years were full of shitty, broke, major title releases, and these shitty, broken, major titles were still top sellers. People will buy your thing as long as the commercial tells them to.

    • "troubling"??? Ms. Ramirez, I believe the word you're looking for is "ironic"!!! Also kinda funny as hell, at least of you're not a Lifelock customer!

    • Probably when they make it impossible for any of the company leaders to sock away any of the money they made, and then add the fines ON TOP of that. So what if the company has to pay $100mil; if the higher-ups who masterminded and carried out the scheme get to keep their hidden bank accounts, houses, cars, and live the life of a 1%er, there's no dis-incentive to do it again.

    • What's "particularly troubling" is -- How the fuck does LifeLock have $100 Million in extra cash to be able to PAY such a fine. Have that many people really fallen for their idiotic commercials? I know I shouldn't underestimate stupidity, but... ya, that's troubling.

  • you gotta pay to play

  • 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.

  • How To Really Avoid Identity Theft (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jason Levine ( 196982 ) on Friday December 18, 2015 @09:49AM (#51142725) Homepage

    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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      Which is the current lifelock business model. Your information will get stolen, but they have the technology and monitoring to insure that any unusual activity will be flagged. Yes, the consumer can do most of this for themselves with little expenditure. Yes, most people over 45 or so don't understand that lifelock is not able to protect data. OTOH, even some tech people think that logging onto their bank with an iPad is going to put them at more risk than have a bank account one can log onto. So at the en

  • 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.

  • 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.

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