Identity Guard Review

Stealing someone's identity used to require the physical theft of documents and cards. Today, criminals can piece together your identity from data breaches, social media posts, and publicly available records. Once they have enough information, they can take out loans, open credit cards, or even commit crimes in your name. The scale is enormous, and identity theft resulted in over $12.5 billion in losses in the United States in 2023 alone.

There are now quite a number of identity theft protection services that promise to keep your personal information safe. What’s noteworthy and intriguing is Identity Guard's use of IBM Watson AI technology, an interesting approach that deserves careful examination.

I've now tested Identity Guard extensively with my colleagues in the Cybernews research team. We looked at how well it tracks, looked into its machine-learning implementation, and evaluated where it falls short in real-world identity theft situations.

In this comprehensive Identity Guard review, I’ll explore the service and help you determine whether it is the right choice for you in 2024.

Identity Guard overview

Rating	2/5 (based on user reviews and our analysis)
Overall rank	#8 out of 10 overall for identity theft prevention services
Pricing	$7.50 to $33.33/month
Key features	AI-powered identity monitoring using IBM Watson Credit monitoring (3-bureau for Total and Ultra plans) Dark web monitoring Data breach notifications $1 million identity theft insurance Bank account monitoring (Total and Ultra plans) Credit and debit card monitoring (Ultra plan) Criminal and sex offense monitoring (Ultra plan)
Notable benefits	Affordable plans starting at $7.50/month with annual billing Family plans available covering up to 5 adults and unlimited children Detailed credit reports and scores (Total and Ultra) Home title monitoring (Ultra only) Limited cybersecurity through the Safe browsing tools Lost wallet protection
Limitations	Credit monitoring not available in the basic Value plan Limited mobile app Limited social media monitoring

Visit Identity Guard

Identity Guard has been around since the early part of the 2000s. However, it has recently been acquired by and integrated with Aura. Although the two companies operate separately, joint corporate ownership has created operational and plan changes in both organizations. Identity Guard stands out for using IBM’s Watson AI and supercomputing framework for machine learning and monitoring your financial and personal data.

Identity Guard offers three service and billing tiers for its identity protection service. These include Value, Total, and Ultra. As you would expect, Value is the basic plan, while Total includes everything in Value plus extras, and Ultra includes everything in the lower plans while adding additional features.

Identity Guard’s primary offering is personal and financial data protection. It does this through data breach notifications, dark web monitoring, and safe browsing tools like a high-quality password manager. All of these features are available across all plans. Because Identity Guard runs its threat analysis through IBM’s Watson AI systems, it has the potential to offer more accurate and faster alerts than traditional systems without such advanced intelligence and processing capabilities.

Identity Guard: pros and cons

Like any identity theft and cybersecurity tool, Identity Guard has advantages and disadvantages associated with its features and operational choices. I’ve identified the following key pros and cons for Identity Guard:

Visit Identity Guard

Identity Guard’s standout feature is AI-powered monitoring using IBM’s Watson AI technology. Because this system can be faster and more accurate than other methods, it is a key differentiator from traditional monitoring systems.

The lack of credit monitoring in the Value plan is notable. This means that many users will need to go to a higher plan, and it means that the most basic option simply isn’t a truly comprehensive identity theft protection system, even though Identity Guard has relevant features.

The lack of a VPN also reinforces that Identity Guard focuses narrowly on identity theft protection and recovery, whereas some competitors focus more broadly on cybersecurity and identity theft protection. Whether this matters to you will hinge on whether you’re happy with your existing cybersecurity measures or see a need to bulk those up.

Finally, Identity Guard’s limited mobile app functionality may be a bit disappointing for anyone who wants to use their phone more than their computer. I feel that a mobile device is usually too small of a window to engage effectively with tools this complex, but if you’re more of a “small-screen” person, this might give you pause.

What is identity theft?

Identity theft involves someone using another person’s identity or personal information without permission, most commonly for financial gain. Many forms of fraud spring from one kind of identity theft or another.

Some of the more common forms of identity theft are:

• Financial identity theft – Using someone’s personal information for direct financial gain by accessing their financial accounts or opening new ones
• Medical identity theft – Using someone’s personal information or ID to get medical care or obtain drugs
• Social Security Number (SSN) identity theft – Usually a form of financial identity theft in which someone uses your SSN to apply for loans or financial accounts in your name
• Child identity theft – Using a minor person’s personal information, which may go unnoticed for quite some time

There are many more types of identity theft, but this overview clearly illustrates how clever and insidious bad actors and cybercriminals can be. This is why tools like Identity Guard are so important to protect your identity and help you recover if you are ever targeted by criminals for identity theft.

What does Identity Guard do?

As a cybersecurity expert, I’ve come to expect that most identity theft protection tools have many other features mixed into them. Sometimes that’s beneficial, and sometimes it’s frankly kind of annoying. In the case of Identity Guard, there is a laser focus on identity theft protection with minimal elements of “mission creep” into other areas.

Identity Guard’s primary functions focus on monitoring for threats, alerting you in case of threats, and restoring your credit and identity records if you are ever a victim of identity theft. IBM’s Watson AI system promises quick and accurate flagging of high-risk threats via email, text, and the Identity Guard mobile app. In my testing, I was impressed with the quick responses to simulated high-risk transactions and the comprehensive data breach cover Identity Guard provided.

Identity Guard offers two features that really stood out to me. These are its identity restoration services and the coverage it includes for children. Because it can go unnoticed without a specialized service like Identity Guard, child identity theft can be a ticking time bomb for young people. I liked Identity Guard's rigid focus on identity theft protection and recovery between this, the dedicated case worker, and the $1 million insurance policy.

Identity Guard features

In my comprehensive examination of Identity Guard alongside my colleagues in the Cybernews research team, we’ve highlighted several features that define this service and make it stand out. I’ll break down the most important ones for you.

AI-powered monitoring system

The core of Identity Guard is its AI-powered monitoring system, built on IBM Watson. Watson is specifically known for beating world-class human players at games like Jeopardy!. However, it is also a clever AI platform that uses machine learning to understand, reason, and learn. Aside from beating you at chess, these capabilities enable Watson to quickly understand your financial transactions and detect dangerous or fraudulent patterns.

Dark Web monitoring

Dark Web monitoring is also a key feature of Identity Guard, specifically because it can alert you to cyber criminals trading your details on the Dark Web before you suffer any losses. This proactive approach can help you secure your accounts before an attacker even succeeds in misusing your data.

Safe browsing features and password manager

Identity Guard’s safe browsing tools consolidate some of the previous cybersecurity and safe browsing features to protect you against phishing websites and other attacks on mobile. The password manager lets you generate and store high-security passwords so that you can follow the operational security guidelines everyone knows about but doesn’t always follow.

Most of the other features are more self-explanatory:

• Data breach notifications
• Risk Management Score
• Criminal and sex offense monitoring
• USPS address change monitoring
• Home title monitoring
• Risk management report
• High-risk transaction monitoring
• Bank account monitoring
• Social media monitoring
• Credit & Debit card monitoring
• 401(k) and investment account monitoring
• 3-bureau credit monitoring
• Monthly Credit Score
• Experian Credit Lock

Again, you can see Identity Guard’s keen focus on its core value proposition – protecting your identity and financial details and helping you recover if a threat ever happens to get through. While the more specialized monitoring features are only included in the most expensive “Ultra” plan, each tier offers a mix of value at its respective price point.

Visit Identity Guard

Identity Guard reviews and user experience

As I’ve worked with the Cybernews research team in our extensive testing of Identity Guard, I’ve gained valuable insights into both the service and the user experience. I found the user interface clean and intuitive, with straightforward options and buttons to navigate the desktop app. The Android app was less extensive than I expected, but I didn’t count this as a major negative because I’d prefer to use a desktop app or browser window for tasks like this.

Identity Guard’s user feedback backs up my observations, scoring 4.4 out of 5 across more than 4,000 reviews on Trustpilot. The customer support experience is similarly very solid, with satisfied users highlighting the speed and accuracy of the service. It’s also nice to have knowledgeable customer service agents based in the US and available 24 hours a day so that you know you’ve got someone to speak to in an emergency.

How much does Identity Guard cost?

I've examined the pricing structure as part of my comprehensive Identity Guard review. The service offers three tiers of protection: Value, Total, and Ultra, each available for individuals and families.

If you pay on an annual basis, the individual plan costs break down as follows:

• Value: $7.50/month
• Total: $16.67/month
• Ultra: $25.00/month

If you pay on an annual basis, the family plans are priced at:

• Value: $12.50/month
• Total: $25.00/month
• Ultra: $33.33/month

In my analysis, the Value plan has one unacceptable omission, which is credit monitoring. I don’t think an identity theft solution without this feature is credible, so I think it’s an error on Identity Guard’s part to leave this out of the Value option, even though this offering is an extremely budget-friendly plan. Because of this omission I can’t recommend the Value plan for most people, and I’d suggest the Total plan instead as a good balance of features and pricing. Bear in mind that even the credit monitoring in Total covers only one bureau rather than all three, but that’s not a disqualifying feature for most average users.

If you want the absolute best, most comprehensive coverage available, the Ultra plan offers solid value for its relatively higher price. Although it is more expensive, Ultra will undoubtedly give you even more peace of mind. However, if you are an average user and not a significantly exposed person with elevated identity theft risk, you will likely find that the Total plan gives you everything you need at a price you can afford.

Get Identity Guard

How to buy Identity Guard

Purchasing an Identity Guard subscription looks much like signing up for most identity protection services.

1. Go to the Identity Guard homepage and click “Start Membership” in the top right corner.
2. Enter your email to get started.
3. Provide your full name.
4. Provide your home address.
5. Verify your identity with your phone number, date of birth, and SSN.
6. Complete your payment and log into Identity Guard’s Dashboard.

Visit Identity Guard

The Identity Guard classic app

Identity Guard Classic was the original version of the Identity Guard service before the introduction of the newer, AI-powered plans built on top of IBM Watson. Because of this, there’s some conflicting information about the current availability of Identity Guard Classic. The Identity Guard Classic app is now deprecated. You can no longer subscribe to or use it. The new, AI-powered version of the Identity Guard app built with IBM Watson has superseded it and offers faster, better, more accurate monitoring.

Our methodology

At Cybernews, We believe that detailed, balanced reviews require extensive research and analysis. Our specialists use an elaborate methodology while assessing different features of the service in this Identity Guard review.

What we did was this:

Protection Features Analysis (30%): We assess the credibility and comprehensiveness of vital features like credit monitoring, dark web monitoring, and social security number(SSN) monitoring.

Alerts (25%): How quickly, how correctly, and with what level of customization the system offers alerts.

Recovery Services (20%): How much support is available via dedicated specialists, as well as the type of identity theft insurance and help freezing credit or contacting institutions.

User Experience (15%): We factored in ease of setup, interface design, mobile functionality, and educational resources.

Value for Money (10%): We looked closely at pricing, features, family or couples plans, free trials, and satisfaction or money-back guarantees when grading this category.

Based on this framework, we assign a final grade to the service so that we can offer you a quantitative as well as qualitative evaluation.

My final verdict on Identity Guard

After extensive testing and simulated usage alongside my colleagues in the Cybernews research team, I’ve formed a measured opinion of Identity Guard’s identity theft protection solution. It has an acceptable user experience and reasonable alerts and recovery services. Its protection features are only fully available on the highest tiers, hurting both the Protection Features and Value for Money categories. Overall, I give it a 45%, meaning that it has made a moderate showing in some areas but overall needs a lot of improvement to be a serious contender.

Identity Guard’s focus on its core value proposition earns my respect, but I think it has some work to do in readjusting its pricing tiers and adjusting its performance to be remotely in the same league as the likes of Aura or LifeLock. I think every plan should have credit monitoring, and it seems an odd choice to restrict a few of the platform’s most powerful features to the Ultra plan. I’m sure the Identity Guard team has their reasons for these choices, but the service could benefit from adding just a few more perks to the most basic “Value” plan to make it feel like less of a compromise.

The bottom line is that anyone who is budget-conscious and has modest expectations will be delighted with the sophisticated, fast alerts and intuitive user interface of Identity Guard. Most users will want the mid-range Total plan. The most vulnerable or nervous users will likely want to spring for the top-end Ultra plan.

FAQ