LifeLock pays $12 million to settle charges the company deceived consumers

LifeLock, Inc., which paraded its CEO's Social Security number on the side of a truck to bolster claims the company could prevent identity theft, reached a $12 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and 35 states over misleading advertising charges.

"While LifeLock promised consumers complete protection against all types of identity theft, in truth, the protection it actually provided left enough holes that you could drive a truck through it," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a written statement.

To settle the charges, the company agreed to stop making claims about how its service could prevent identity theft, monitor all activity of all its customers and to render their personal information useless to identity thieves. And, ironically, the company also had to agree to protect its customers' information, something the FTC said it had been lax about.