Earlier this week, I pecked out a few skeptical words about StolenID Search, a new free service from TrustedID that allows anyone to enter their social security or credit card numbers into a search box to learn if that info might already be in the hands of identity thieves.
From that post:
In all seriousness, I could very well manage to get comfortable with the idea of running my numbers through Stolen ID Search, but right now TrustedID doesn’t seem to be offering enough value in return for that leap of faith. When the service becomes more than a marketing engine for the company’s paid service, perhaps we can talk.
TrustID’s CEO Scott Mitic sent me this reply yesterday:
Paul,
Thanks for your post on StolenID Search on Tuesday. I’d love to share a few thoughts with you in response.
To start, StolenID Search is intended as consumer-empowering, free service. We’re a trustworthy company with a strong consumer advocacy thread in our corporate DNA. We thought carefully about offering this service before launch, and consulted with experts, including The Identity Theft Resource Center (idtheftcenter.org), before concluding it strongly served the public good. There is nowhere else where consumers can get the kind of insight we’re offering for free. The next best option would be www.identitysweep.com where you could pay $4.95 a month. Do most people trust more, or see more value, when they have to pay? Maybe.
We’re constantly making improvements to StolenID Search; hopefully we’ll soon provide you with the value you personally are looking for and we’ll entice you to try the service.
In the meantime, all of our data right now proves that consumers do see a real value here. Yesterday, our first full day of operations for StolenID search, we saw almost every visitor to the site conducting a search. And 2% of our site visitors learned that their information had been compromised.
Best regards,
Scott
Mitic gets into more detail here on the company’s site.
OK, so Mitic has made a good start toward assuaging my concerns about the safety of revealing my personal info to StolenID Search. … Now all I have to do is overcome my fear of what such a search might reveal.
