| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas |
| Key people | Bo Holland, Founder and CEO |
| Website | www.AllClearID.com [1] |
AllClear ID, released in 2010, is an identity theft protection product from the company Debix. Debix was founded in 2004 and uses patented technology to alert customers of potential fraud.[1]
According to the AllClear ID website, the company “set out to change the rules of identity theft protection. To become the first ever to offer 100% free, essential identity protection available to everyone”.[2] The company received a significant amount of press following the release of a research study with Carnegie Mellon CyLab on child identity theft in April 2011.[3]
In May 2011, following the Sony PlayStation Network outage, Sony announced that they would be offering all PlayStation Network and Qriocity account holders in the United States one free year of AllClear ID Plus.[4]
The company currently offers two identity protection products. AllClear ID Free provides Internet surveillance, attack reporting and identity repair. The internet surveillance feature is done electronically, scanning online information in chat rooms, file sharing networks and more for evidence of identity information found online. To sign up, a name, e-mail address, and date of birth are required.[5]
AllClear ID Pro includes an ID Theft insurance policy, credit monitoring for $9.95 a month.[6] The service is powered by Debix, an electronic system which tracks identity attacks and delivers the information to its customers via telephone.[7] AllClear ID Pro was ranked second overall in Javelin’s Fifth Annual ID Protection Services Scorecard, with Identity Guard placing first.[8] In the category of Restoration, AllClear ID tied for first alongside Identity Force and Royal. [9]
In 2011 AllClear ID worked with Richard Power, a distinguished fellow at Carnegie Mellon University CyLab, to create a report on their child ID theft data. Using the data supplied by AllClear ID, Power completed the largest report ever done on child identity theft. From the database of over 40,000 children, Power found that 10.2% had someone else using their Social Security numbers. This rate was 51 times greater than the 0.2% rate of identity theft found in adults in the same population.[10]
Jeff Rossen of the Today Show led a follow-up investigation, interviewing victims of child identity theft. Investigators were able to hunt down the child impostors who were still living and working using a child's Social Security number.[11]
In July 2011, Holland, along with leaders from the Social Security Administration, Identity Theft 911, The Identity Theft Resource Center, and more, spoke at Stolen Futures, the FTC forum on Child Identity Theft.[12] There he presented the findings from the CyLab report on child identity theft, as well as findings from follow up data sampling since the report release. [13]