In a decision that has privacy advocates and others scratching their heads, a federal judge has ruled that LifeLock has been breaking California law for years by placing fraud alerts on its customer's credit profiles.
The decision is a blow to the burgeoning identify-theft protection industry, and means that companies that experience data breaches may no longer be able to offer victims free subscriptions to such services - a standard damage-control tactic in recent years. Consumers can still place fraud alerts by contacting one of the three U.S. credit reporting agencies directly.
Bo Holland, founder and CEO of Debix, a competitor of LifeLock, called the ruling "dramatic and unexpected."
"It causes a real shift in the industry," he told Threat Level.
The pre-trial partial summary judgment comes in a lawsuit filed last year against LifeLock by Experian, one of the nation's three credit reporting bureaus. Experian claimed LifeLock is trying to "game the system" of fraud alerts to make a profit.
We paused, we talked, and even though we were in a scary situation with imperfect information, we made a thoughtful decision fast."
That's as good a description of powerful leadership - and powerful living - in the twenty first century as I can imagine.
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