Identity Truth Review

IdentityTruth (www.identitytruth.com), a Massachusetts-based company, was incorporated in 2006. IdentityTruth has been an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau since January 2007, and currently is assigned an A rating.

Proprietary Technology – For $17.99 per month, or $179.95 per year, IdentityTruth does more than simply monitor your credit report. IdentityTruth uses proprietary technology to predict identity theft risks. After scanning various databases and sites for instances of your personal identity data, IdentityTruth compares the results to risk models created from actual criminal cases. The assessment of your risk for ID theft is then available to you using your personal online dashboard.

Key Features – Features of IdentityTruth include a purchased credit report from all three credit reporting agencies. This means you still get your free annual report when you want it. Other features are:

• credit monitoring – your credit report is monitored for changes.

• 24/7 Internet monitoring – various sites are monitored for numbers and other information linked to IdentityTruth’s customers.

• personal data breaches – if a company you do business with suffers a theft from its customer databases, you are notified.

• Identity health score – you are assigned a score which indicates your likelihood of ID theft.

• Fraud alerts and credit locks – IdentityTruth sets these on your behalf with the credit bureaus.

• Real Estate and utility companies are monitored as well as the credit bureaus

• Discovery of unknown aliases which can signal an increased risk of ID theft.

• Availability of staff members to assist you should you need to take action to prevent or recover from ID theft.

• Alerts via email and text messages.

Be Aware of the Privacy Policy – IdentityTruth’s openness on their website is refreshing. They are up front about their status as a venture-capital funded company, which clearly indicates their primary focus is turning a profit. Unlike some web-based companies, they do not hide behind a shield of anonymity, but rather publish their address and contact information clearly, which helps create a sense of trustworthiness.

However, one confusing aspect of IdentityTruth’s business model is the apparent inconsistency between their pledge to protect your identity and the way they use the personally identifiable information you provide.

IdentityTruth’s privacy policy states they do share your personally identifiable consumer information with agents and vendors under agreement with them and acting on their behalf including without limitation credit reporting service providers, hosting providers, marketing services and web analysis providers. Marketing services and web analysis providers is a broad category that may include companies you might wish didn’t have your personal data.

To IdentityTruth’s credit, you are given the option of opting out of this type of sharing.
(written Oct 20, 2010)