LifeLock, a leading provider in identity theft protection services recently recruited Harris Interactive to conduct a study on the effectiveness of using an identity theft protection service. The purpose of the study was to examine consumer awareness of protecting their identity without mentioning the name of LifeLock who sponsored the study.
Details of Identity Theft Protection Study
The study conducted by Harris Interactive found that consumers who fell victim to identity theft indicated that they spent less time and money recovering their identity by subscribing to an identity theft protection service than consumers who did not subscribe to an ID protection service and had their identities stolen.
The consumer survey was conducted online during December of 2010 with participants located in the United States. The consumers that were surveyed were adults over the age of 21 with 1,366 of respondents subscribed to some type of identity theft protection service. The total number of consumers surveyed was 3,047.
The consumers who were currently subscribed to an identity theft protection service expressed satisfaction with their service and indicated that it provided them with piece of mind and convenience. When presented with the option of expressing their satisfaction with identity theft protection services consumers could indicate on a scale of 1 to 10 how satisfied they were with their current ID theft protection service. 72 percent of the respondents indicated anywhere from 8 to 10 with 10 equal to “extremely satisfied.”
Comparison Study
In the comparison part of the study consumers with a subscription to an identity theft protection service were compared with those who have no protection. The comparison showed that a high percentage of consumers with protection demonstrated a higher level of confidence in protection from issues associated with identity theft than consumers with no protection. The consumers with protection also believed that the service they were using provided them with piece of mind and provided them with the type of protection that they could not accomplish on their own.
The comparison study also showed that the consumers that were currently using an identity theft protection service experienced less downtime in terms of getting their identity fully recovered as opposed to consumers without protection. The consumers with protection also indicated that they spent less money recovering their identity while saving time during the recovery process. They also revealed that they were satisfied with the notification they received from the identity theft protection service of potentially fraudulent use of personal information.
Methodology Used to Conduct the Survey
The study was conducted online with consumers in the United States with the figures for age, sex, race, education, geographic location and household income weighted in necessary categories to bring the survey results into proportion with the overall population in the US.
The survey respondents were those who agreed to participate in a Harris Interactive survey without being informed of the sponsor of the survey, LifeLock, Inc. identity theft protection services.
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