Founders Intersections Inc. | Key people Johan Roets
(CEO) | |
Type Wholly-owned subsidiary Founded (2001; 16 years ago (2001)) Headquarters Chantilly, Virginia, United States Services Identity theft protection, Credit monitoring | ||
Identity Guard is an identity theft protection service based in Chantilly, Virginia. The service offers several different identity theft protection products to help consumers protect themselves from identity fraud and misuse. Identity Guard is a subsidiary of Intersections Inc.
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In 2016, Identity Guard launched Privacy Now, the first IBM Watson-enabled consumer identity protection and privacy service. Privacy Now debuted at IBM’s 2016 World of Watson conference in Las Vegas.
History
Identity Guard was founded in 2001 by Intersections Inc. (NYSE: INTX). Intersections Inc. was founded in 1996. In January 2016, Intersections Inc. Board announced the appointment of Johan Roets as CEO. Roets joined Intersections in September 2014, as Chief Operating Officer and quickly added President, Identity Guard to his role. Roets was elected as a member of the Intersections Board of Directors in May 2015. His leadership was instrumental in executing the transformation of Intersections from a business with a highly concentrated customer base that was shrinking due to regulatory challenges, to a better positioned, highly innovative company with a more diverse customer base and product portfolio which leverage Intersections' core data analytics and recurring revenue model competencies.
Products
Identity Guard offers a variety of products, the most popular being Total Protection, Platinum and Privacy Now. All three of the above products offer credit monitoring, social security number monitoring, online “dark web” monitoring, ID verification alerts, account takeover alerts, address change monitoring and public record monitoring. Platinum offers monthly 3 bureau credit reports, scores and credit analyzer, with lost wallet protection and US customer care. Total Protection offers quarterly 3 bureau credit reports, scores and credit analyzer, as well as lost wallet protection and US based customer care. Total Protection was rated best identity protection by Kiplinger Personal Finance, based on an affiliate ranking, beating out competitors such as LifeLock Ultimate Plus and LifeLock Advantage.
Identity Guard launched Privacy Now in 2016, is a personalized privacy protection product that uses cognitive computing built with IBM Watson technology to search news sources for potential risks to alert you about. It is the first identity protection and privacy service to use Watson technology.
Identity Guard also offers identity protection solutions for families and children through their family plans. Children can be vulnerable to identity theft much like adults; the family plans allow families with and without children to get protected under one plan.
Identity Guard products come with a $1million insurance policy. Unlike a guarantee which will only cover your expenses if the company is at fault for an instance of identity theft, Identity Guard membership insurance could potentially cover many costs associated with identity theft, such as lost wages, travel expense and elder/child care. Benefits are subject to terms and conditions.
Identity Guard provides credit scores based on information from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit files to help you learn from and understand your credit. Since lenders use many different types of scoring systems, the scores you get through Identity Guard may not be the same used by lenders to evaluate your credit.
Business Solutions
Identity Guard Business solutions offer data breach response products and employee benefits to businesses of all sizes. In 2016, Identity Guard launched www.identityguardbusiness.com, an online site for businesses to purchase identity theft services for customers impacted by a data breach or as benefit for employees.
Identity Guard Business solutions offers Essentials and Total Protection. Essentials service includes several of the same key features to help protect your identity such as SSN monitoring, ID Verification alerts, plus $1 million identity theft insurance. Total Protection service includes everything in Essentials plus public record monitoring, quarterly 3 credit score and 3-bureau credit report updates and more.