Lifelock is a company that bills itself as the next generation of identity theft protection. So much so, that Lifelock CEO Todd Davis parades his actual social security number around on national tv. (His SSN is 457-55-5462 just in case you were curious.)

So is Lifelock really that great...? That is what I really wanted to find out.

Most credit protection services offered by banks, credit cards, credit bureaus, etc, are some form of credit monitoring. Basically these services will monitor your credit reports and alert you of any changes (usually via snail mail). There is one fatal flaw with credit monitoring however... By the time you are notified of changes, the damage has already been done. Essentially they notify you that your identity is stolen after the fact.

Lifelock has tried to correct that fatal flaw by actively monitoring your credit reports and notifying you of any attempted transactions before they proceed. If they are authorized transactions, life goes on -- however, if they are not authorized transactions, Lifelock will cancel them -- before any damage is done.

As identity thieves become more sophisticated, so does identity theft protection. Lifelock will do more that just actively monitor your credit reports, it includes several identity theft protection services at no additional cost.

• Lifelock will set fraud alerts on your credit reports - which means you will know about attempted identity theft before it interferes in your life.

• About every 90 days they will have each of the three major credit bureaus send you your credit report.

• Lifelock will remove your name from pre-approved credit offers and junk mail lists. (a major culprit in identity thefts)

• Provide walletlock protection to help you replace credit cards, id, etc. if your wallet is lost or stolen.

• Work proactively to shut down potential identity threats before your identity has been compromised.

• Provide up to one million dollars of protection in the event your identity is stolen and help restore your good name.

Some of the biggest critics of Lifelock are the Credit Bureaus. (which I am sure has nothing to do with the fact that they are also Lifelock's biggest competitors) The largest complaint is that Lifelock charges for services that consumers could do themselves for free. However, Lifelock has never been deceptive about this and instead suggests that consumers pay for the convenience of having someone else take care of setting up fraud alerts, canceling junk mail, etc.

Critics have also called into question the amount of information required by Lifelock to set up protection. The fact of the matter is that in order to provide protection, Lifelock needs to know who they are protecting.

Identity theft is a growing problem and has simply become the reality we face in the information age.

www.Lifelock.com