LifeLock, which has drawn a lawsuit over its anti-fraud system by the Experian credit bureau, has landed a working partnership agreement with TransUnion that will automate delivery of ID theft services to LifeLock subscribers. The agreement will streamline the output of fraud alerts and consumer opt-outs through an electronic connection with TransUnion. LifeLock files and regularly renews fraud alerts to keep consumer profiles in a perpetual watch state preventing lenders from extending credit without verification.
It was LifeLock’s use of the consumer hotline to file alerts on behalf of more than 600,000 regular subscribers that led to Experian’s lawsuit earlier this year. Experian claimed this is overly costly to bureaus and watered down the effectiveness of the alert system. Service is deceptive to consumers who could file the protests themselves without the monthly $10 fee to LifeLock.
That’s a point of view shared by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, which disparages credit monitoring services’ ineffectiveness against many prevalent frauds, but LifeLock has gained allies not only with TransUnion but also in vendor agreements with Jack Henry & Associates and Fifth Third Processing Solutions.
