McAfee – Privacy & Identity Guard Online Protection + ID Monitoring + Cleanup for 12 Months, auto-renews at $99.99 for first year – Android, Apple iOS, Chrome, Mac OS, Windows [Digital]

Customer Reviews (30)

1. 

   mdh4pennstate – August 15, 2023

   Rated 5 out of 5

   This is my review of the McAfee Privacy & Identity Guard upon which I rate it at 5 out of 5 stars. In full disclosure I received this product in exchange for this review. This product was received as a software download from McAfee. Upon install, the program walks you through your personal information input as needed to track your digital footprint on the Internet. You will enter items such as email addresses, phone numbers, social security number, passport number, driver license number, credit cards, band accounts, etc. Once this information is provided the program looks across the Internet/web and dark web for your information.

   In my person example, this program found over 30-instances of my personal information housed by data brokers. These data brokers obtain your information legally through information you may provide when performing transactions online. In short, companies you provide your personal information may sell your data to a data broker who in turn, takes this information to perform marketing/advertising algorithms to better target customers. This McAfee Privacy & Identity Guard program will now reach out to these 30+ data brokers to have my information removed from their data warehouse. The timeframe for this information to be removed will take 30-45 days. To add, this will be an endless cycle of monitoring for new instances of data as your information will always have the potential to be shared as you perform online transitions. To finalize my review, there also were two instances of my data found on the dark web. These were with two online accounts I had with retailers. All that is required is to change your passwords on those accounts or you can even close the account completely if you wish. I like that I can control all my personal online information and monitor for new instances.

   I hope that you enjoyed reading my review and it helped in your purchasing decision.

2. 

   gadgetguy11 – August 15, 2023

   Rated 2 out of 5

   McAfee® Privacy & Identity Guard is a product designed to enhance the safety of your devices, credit cards, bank accounts, tax ID, driver’s licenses & health ID’s.

   But, before you decide to drop your hard earned dollars for this Privacy & Identity Guard, here are a few concerns:

   1- No Free Trial. If you want to try this product to see if it is worth the cost, McAfee requires you buy it in advance in order to hook you up. They offer a 30 Day Refund, but exercising that option is not an easy task.

   2- Even after you purchase McAfee Privacy & Identity Guard, you cannot activate the product until you give McAfee your credit card & sign up for automatic annual renewal! The activation page states that you can “cancel at any time”. I decided to cancel my automatic annual renewal immediately after activating the product, to provide a year of experience, after which I may or may not choose to renew the subscription. Cancelling the automatic renewal was a very tedious process & required assistance from Customer Service. If McAfee® Privacy & Identity Guard is a worthy investment, why make it so difficult to obtain the advertised refund? When I was finally able to cancel the Auto Renewal, a pop up ad came on constantly requesting me to sign up again and again.

   CONCLUSION:

   I entered all personal data, banking information & credit cards on Mac OS & received this reply: “Great news! You don’t have any new breaches.” That is a relief!

3. 

   PhillipB – August 15, 2023

   Rated 5 out of 5

   McAfee back in the day was just know for virus protection. They have evolved with the times and have changed the services they provide.

   This package has identified personal information on line and other threats. It scans the web and provides different recommendations to protect yourself from identity threats.

   These days data breaches are such a comment event that I get so many notifications of my personal information is all over the place. From cell phone carriers to email accounts to other websites that you shop on. Super frustrating….

   It was straight forward. Create a login put in your personal information for the different categories. After that the program runs various algorithms and spits out a report on what to do to take steps to mitigate those issues.

   It took all but 10 minutes or so to get set up and do the scan. The. About 30 mins to fix the issues identified.

   Bottom line with all of the hacking and cyber crimes occuring I would highly recommend this product for another line of defense in addition to best practice to be mindful of what you do online.

   With that, I would recommend this product for what it says it does.

4. 

   Cipher469 – August 15, 2023

   Rated 5 out of 5

   I like McAfee products and have been using the Live Safe suite of services for several years. So far, this new product for privacy and ID protection appears to be an excellent addition to their range of products. Reviewing this type of software product is quite different than it would be for reviewing the computer you are using it on. It’s sort of like insurance, you buy it hoping you never need it. However, if it catches a breach and protects your device or detects weaknesses in your protection, you’ll be glad you have it.

   Installation is quick and easy, especially if you already have a McAfee account. When that was completed, it ran a review of my system and quickly produced a list (thankfully short) of possible issues. Digging down into those items, I found some were associated with a trusted source and others that were not easily identified as such by me. Had I not had this new software, I would never have had any idea of what was going on behind the screen.

   Identity Guard also went immediately to work, scanning the identity related information contained in accounts and other personal information: SSN, credit cards, etc. When the scan finished, it reported that I had no breaches. That was great news, and I look forward to it staying that way.

   Privacy and Identity Alarm is already a worthy partner for my Live Safe protection. If you don’t use McAfee otherwise, this product can still be beneficial for your online security.

5. 

   GameOverSuckas – August 15, 2023

   Rated 3 out of 5

   McAfee Privacy & Identity Guard states that that they can clear up your personal information that specific websites have stored or information that was stolen in a data breach. Making a profile on the site was pretty quick and simple. You submit your personal information then they put in a request to these sites to remove it. It’s not an overnight process, and says it can taker up to thirty to forty-five days to have your data fully removed.

   One of the issues I had was when putting in all of my information to be monitored. I already have another Mcafee product active as well registered under my email address on my Mcafee profile. It allowed me to add an additional email address to protect but when it came to me adding my birthday it would not allow me and only shows the other birthday on the other Mcafee service which is my godsons.

   There seems to be no way around it or any way to add my birthday. So when it comes to the “score” the app gives you as far as protection coverage mine was really low, in combination with how many places my email was found on different sites. But I already knew that from having another monitoring service prior to this one.

   So for right now I don’t know if it’s doing what it claims or not because the wait is quite a while before you see results. I don’t think I would recommend this to others especially if they have other Mcafee products that might cause conflict.

6. 

   TechGuru – August 17, 2023

   Rated 4 out of 5

   I recently subscribed to McAfee Privacy & Identity Guard for a 1-year plan, enticed by its promising features. While the protection it offers is impressive, there are a few caveats worth noting.

   Upon installation, I was disappointed to find that the software requires credit card information for automatic renewal, leaving no option to override this setup during installation. This lack of flexibility was a bit frustrating, as I prefer to manage my own payment renewals. However, the remedy lies in the account settings, where automatic renewal can be disabled, and a 30-day renewal reminder is in place.

   Once past this initial hurdle, I was pleasantly surprised by the features. Identity monitoring, in particular, stood out as a valuable tool. It keeps a watchful eye on my personal information, promptly alerting me to any presence of my data on the dark web. This early detection is a vital defense against potential misuse.

   The personal data cleanup feature takes the initiative to locate my personal information on data broker sites, requesting its removal to shield me from identity threats. Additionally, the online account cleanup performs regular scans to uncover and assess accounts created with various companies. This helps in making informed decisions about deleting these accounts to prevent data breaches.

   The protection score is a standout feature that provides a snapshot of my online security status.

   In conclusion, McAfee privacy & identity guard offers an extensive suite of security tools to protect your personal information and online presence.

7. 

   GamingBusinessGuy – August 17, 2023

   Rated 4 out of 5

   This is my first time getting any sort of protection like this and it was quite enlightening. But the idea of giving a single app literally all your personal data is INCREDIBLY nerve wracking. Like I almost didn’t wanna go through with it. The thought kept entering my mind, this single company could have a data breech and then I’m skeee…ruuuddde! Luckily it claims to have all the standard protections and more to keeping your identity secure.

   The interface is easy to use, and the program does an excellent job of explaining everything in a way that’s easy to understand. However due to the fact it’s web based I often found myself wishing it were an app on my computer and would notify me. Luckily, after a few days I realized that there is a mobile app to address this. The mobile app is decent and easy to navigate. Provides enough detail on everything to be a useful tool but is far less comprehensive than the website is. It will at least notify you on breeches. Addressing the breeches on your phone via the app is also not as streamlined as it is on PC/Mac via a web browser. You could access it on your mobile web browser too and honestly found that pretty darn good, but the problem again is notifications. It will email you about new breaches, but I enjoy push notifications from apps. The interface also splits up into two major groups. Privacy focused stuff and Identity monitoring. Privacy is more exciting, and the identity monitoring was more of a chore for me.

   With Identity Monitoring, was going through dealing with breeches, etc.

   Privacy however was cooler… I think. One of the things I like most about the McAfee Privacy & Identity Guard is that it gives you a score for your online security and privacy, a way to kind of gamify your privacy. This score is based on a few factors and from what I can tell, some other factors that I haven’t discovered yet. The obvious ones are addressing breached passwords, reading about breached information, like your phone number or addresses, and acknowledging your SSN breaches and handling their recommended steps to secure yourself.

   There’s also an automated “online identity scrubber” that tries to remove you from online databases. I suspect my score will go up after that is completed, but it states it can take up to a whopping 30 to 45 days to complete. To be honest this is the most intriguing part of this. I’d love to wipe my presence from online searches. They call this the “Personal Data Cleanup” and it’s a service they provide. You don’t have to do it yourself. The amount of data some of these sites had on me were CRAZY. It had my family information, aunts, uncles, parents, siblings, addresses, social media accounts, etc. NUTS. Luckily I haven’t screwed someone over enough to want to get me. But the sheer amount of info that was on these sites, crazy. The best part is IT’LL DO IT ALL FOR ME. I still have a bunch of time before I can see the results of it, but I’m hoping it’ll succeed.

   I’m currently at a 620 on the McAfee scale, and I’m trying to get it higher, but as I alluded to earlier, I don’t know what the steps are to do that outside what I’ve already done.

   One thing that I found odd about this service is that it recommended that I delete my Amazon account. I understand that Amazon has a lot of information on me, but I’m not sure I’m ready to delete that account just yet. I get why it’s marked it as a high-risk account, but I don’t think I could do that. Much like I wouldn’t be able to delete my Best Buy account or say Spotify account. They’re services that I actively use and I feel like it would inconvenience my life more so than the x% it improved my security/privacy. My suggestion to McAfee would be to suggest ways to secure your life for these high risk accounts so you can live with it and maximize your security and privacy. Suggest a stronger password, and give examples, ship to a pick up center instead of your home, using burner credit cards instead, etc.

   Overall, I think this McAfee product is a great tool for anyone who wants to improve their online security and privacy. It’s easy to use and it does a great job of explaining everything in a way that’s easy to understand. The UI is super easy to navigate, and it offers I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is concerned about their online security and privacy and wants to take back control of their personal info. Ultimately I gave it a 4 star instead of a perfect 5 is because it’s hard to listen to all the recommendations and it says I can improve my score by doing these steps, but when I open that section, literally nothing is there. I already did them. So it’s give you a sense that it’s not fully flushed out or that you are indeed working with a program that isn’t that aware of itself. But still, highly recommended. It was a darn good first impression.

8. 

   KaeL – August 18, 2023

   Rated 5 out of 5

   With all of the heightened concern I and my family have had with our online security and personal info floating around in the cyber world I am always seeking the best ways to protect our devices and our info. Using the McAfee Privacy & Identity Guard proved to be a simple to use heavy hitter when it came to seeking out what was lurking online and doing something about it. It’s eye opening to see just how many data broker sites that exist solely to profit from our info. McAfee’s full service removal and data cleanup feature does a pretty good job seeking out things and helping have it removed as well as letting you know what sites collect AND sell your info without your permission. It was also great at finding those long forgotten online accounts you have created (I was surprised how many were still out there from my college years!) as well as identifying accounts that may have been exposed to data breach events.

   I have used a different brands monitoring service that was meant to track my various ID, email accounts, financial account numbers, etc that failed to alert me to issues before I found out via other methods so I was hesitant when it came to McAfee’s claims. As irony would have it on day one this one alerted us to an issue with an account I share with my college aged son which lead us to finding some identity theft activity occurring. This alone won me over. This program alone isn’t enough to fully protect you but it definitely helps keep you in the loop so you can spring into action before things get out of hand. This is definitely worth trying if you have even a little concern about your personal info in today’s world

9. 

   TheRoots – August 18, 2023

   Rated 5 out of 5

   As someone who has been the victim of Identity Theft before, I was really interested in this. I’ve subscribed to Identity Theft protection in the past, but didn’t feel like it alerted me to problem areas before they became problems. But, I really like that this service provides Identity Theft monitoring and Privacy protection. I feel the price for both of these services is an excellent value. Some of the other companies charge more just for the ID theft, including the one that I used in the past. In addition, I already own Internet Security and VPN software, which this doesn’t provide, so I only have to pay for what I need.

   The setup was simply and the website guides you through everything fairly well. Once I activated my subscription, I just had to create my account and follow the tasks presented in the Home screen. There is also an App that you can install on your Android or IOS device. You enter your personal information and financial information to setup the Identity Monitoring. Once I completed that, it immediately showed me where my information was found in recent data breaches. You then review and resolve each one to boost your overall protection score. One strange thing about the website and the App is that every time you go into the Home screen, it constantly displays a warning “Attention Needed” under data breaches. However, when you click it, there aren’t any new data breaches and the one I had been shown initially had already been resolved. Other than that, the ID Theft monitoring works in the background and will inform you of any new data breaches.

   The next thing you setup is the Privacy protection and it allows you to request removal of your personal information from the data broker sites where you are listed. This automatically runs every 3 months and looks for your personal information on the data broker websites. It then prompts you to review each profile it found and you can request they remove your personal information, which McAfee all does behind the scenes. If this stops some of my spam calls, this may be worth the cost of the McAfee subscription alone. It takes 30-45 days for the information to be removed and you are notified of when each broker has completed that.

   In addition, you can have the Privacy look for “Risky Accounts”. To do this, you have to give it access to your email. (After spending 24-hours researching what they do with that, I finally agreed to give them access.) Once you set it up, it then quickly finds current and unused accounts you have setup (i.e., department stores, websites, etc.). It also classifies them into High Risk, Rarely Used, and Financial Data. It then provides information on how to delete accounts you don’t need or use, in order to limit your exposure to potential data breaches. I found with this you have to look at each account and determine if you still use it and if you feel it is risky or not for you. For example, one of the sites it said was risky was Amazon, which I need. But, it did show me accounts I no longer used and had forgotten about. So, I am requesting those accounts be closed and deleted.

   Overall, I feel this works very well and the price is excellent. There are some quirky things about the website and App. But, the actual behind the scenes Identity Theft monitoring and online privacy protection is very comprehensive. I highly recommend this, especially at this price.

10. 

    SteveC – August 20, 2023

    Rated 5 out of 5

    I wanted to try out McAfee’s new Privacy and Identity Guard as I wanted something to check out my information fully.

    There’s nothing to install, and is all web based so there’s nothing to run on your computer with this, and you can sign in from any browser. The Privacy and Identity Guard advertises that it has Personal Data Cleanup, Online Account Cleanup, Identity monitoring, and McAfee Protection Score.

    After ordering all you have to do is set up your account “if you don’t already have one” and activate with the provided license emailed after purchase.

    1st, the Personal Data Cleanup really surprised me, and according to their information out of 40 sites they regularly monitor as “data brokers” I had information on 36 of them “I’ve been online for a long time”, and one of those sites “I double checked”, had information on me going back to the mid 1990s, wow. I was really surprised just how much of my information was on those sites. I do like that McAfee shows that they requested my information to be removed from all those sites and will keep the portal updated as they respond back. They’ll also provide me the information on how to manually request my information be removed in case any of those refuse the requests.

    2nd, the Online Account Cleanup amazed me, it showed me sites that I hadn’t used in years and still had my information, “almost 800 of them :O “, it lets you click on each one to be taken to the site so you can see if you can remove that information yourself. Luckily a lot of those site I’ve not used in 5+ years and my passwords and information has changed enough to where nothing there ought to be valid for a hacker.

    3rd the Identity monitoring is a welcome plus, as I already have it through my tax software company and at least this is another added level of protection. I can also set up alerts to let me know if any of the parameters are met/broken. So far nothing has come back on this but it’s nice to know that active monitoring is there and working.

    4th the McAfee Protection Score just gives you a score based on how much you are monitoring and cleaning up. The more information you give them and the more effort you put into cleaning up its alerts the higher your score goes. It’s a good measure to keep you trying to get a high score.

    Conclusion:
    In all I’m very impressed with just how much of my information this found out on the web, “including very old information” that I really don’t want anyone to be able to just look up. And with McAfee requesting the removal of that information from those sites and providing me the information on how to request it if they refuse is a huge plus. The rest of the stuff included like the online account cleanup was really helpful. Even though a huge chunk of the almost 800 sites listed were old and closed it’s nice to know just who is still hanging onto that information. I’m going to have a lot of work cut out cleaning up those old accounts.

    They also show you how many data breaches your information was on and lists them so you can go in and work on cleaning those up, “making that a priority.

    With all the other monitoring and identity sites out there it’s hard to know who would be the best one. In my opinion I’ll stick with the McAfee Privacy and Identity Guard as it’s affordable and did an extremely good job of identifying all my information that’s floating around the web. So if you are trying to choose, do take a look at Privacy and Identity Guard, it’s well worth the money.

11. 

    Malcolm – August 24, 2023

    Rated 3 out of 5

    Interesting bit of software. It comes in handy to be able to cross check your information and find out if it has been compromised. There are a few companies that offer the same service. I like the interface but I was not to thrilled about them asking for my credit card information to sign up for a service so that they can charge me when I eventually forget to cancel before the trial period is over.

    Pro’s:

    I like that this is web based and I didn’t have to install anything on a pc or my phone. The variety of things that it covers if you are comfortable enough to provide the company with your private information. They say they check the darkweb for any of your information that you provide them. It is easy to use.

    Con’s:

    This might not be a con but if you think you have a compromised system then I am not sure if inputting your personal information into it to have them do their thing to check for you is kind of suspect to me. The point system for adding your information into their system for them to keep track of your information is a bit weird to me. The point of them checking and not receiving any alert of follow up to what they are doing is a bit off to me as well. Outside of that it okay.

    Not sure if I would recommend this to someone.

12. 

    Josenieve – August 25, 2023

    Rated 3 out of 5

    As a member of BestBuy’s Tech Insider Network, I received a free trial of this new software from McAfee, famous for its Anti-virus software products.
    This is a web based subscription service that will scour the “dark web” for your data, as well as data broker sites, who make their money from the sale of personal information that exist in “public records”.

    If you have ever tried to look up a high school classmate, or the whereabouts of a former neighbor, you have undoubtedly run into these Data Brokers, offering the inside scoop about anyone, for a fee. The names of these are likely familiar to you: Spokeo, 411Find, etc. and they purport to offer data important for background check of someone who you might be interviewing for a job, or as a caretaker, etc. for your own security. 


    The “dark web” aspect is something that I certainly have heard of, where illegal identity theft data can be purchased. This is the network whereby your credit card numbers, Social Security number, bank account numbers and login passwords, etc. can all be purchased.

    Alas, I was the victim of an identity theft several years ago, where someone in Indiana filed and received an income tax return in my name in January. I did not find out about this until I tried to file in March via TurboTax. It was TurboTax that guided me through getting this all worked through.

    That event changed a lot of our personal habits about passwords, email phishing attempts, etc. But nonetheless, we got a call from one credit card issuer last week about a charge that they thought to be fraudulent, at a store in Kansas (we live in New Hampshire and have never visited Kansas). Indeed, it was fraudulent, and they are sending a new card with new numbers, etc. So everyone is vulnerable.

    With this background, I was very interested in a trial of this subscription service from McAfee. We both think that we are quite cautious and diligent about our online footprint. We don’t reuse passwords, use a password manager to generate complex 12 digit passwords. We use two factor identification at every website that supports it, especially to bank or brokerage accounts. We do regular backups of our computers and cell phones, both to a physical hard drive and to iCloud. But still we had a credit card number compromised. We have an anti malware software that scans the hard drive daily.

    So what is it that McAfee is purporting to provide with this product. Per their advertising, the following:

    1) Monitor
    We continuously monitor for threats to your identity on the dark web and activity on your credit.
    2) Alert
    We’ll alert you of any info found on the dark web and credit activity and provide guidance of actions to take to secure your accounts

    3) Resolve
    If you become a victim of identity theft, a licensed identity restoration expert will work with you to fix it.

    4) Reimburse
    We’ll reimburse funds stolen due to identity theft per your protection plan.*
    [That Asterix applies to a premium level of subscription, at an additional cost]

    How does identity monitoring work?
    We monitor your personal info for breaches so you can take action to secure your
    accounts before they can be used for possible identity theft.

    My experience with the program, over the last 4 weeks:

    Once you sign up for the service, you enter your vital statistics, such as date of birth, current address, social security number, bank account and routing numbers, credit card numbers, etc. It requires a great deal of faith to put all of this info into one company’s info banks.

    Very quickly, a list of data breaches that included one or another parts of my profile was generated and supplied to me as a list for action. Many, perhaps most, of the security alerts had to do with breaches from over 5 years ago, back when I kept my passwords on one index card, etc.
    Since that time, I have instituted multiple habits, most notably a quality Password manager that generates passwords, automatically will scan your list and will upon your request automatically change any password on your list that has such a facility (many sites do not cooperate, so have to be done manually), notifies you if you have a legacy password that you have duplicated and offers to changes those, and works seamlessly with your web browser to prompt and enter your passwords from your stored account.

    This list was perhaps of little current importance, given the years that have passed. McAfee states that I was impacted by 5 Luxxotica breaches from 2017 – 2019. Clicking through this part of nearly ancient history was un-rewarding, since I don’t currently have any account with that Italian eyeglass conglomerate. They had no history of an online account, so changing my password was not even possible.
    I also had a notice about a German soccer league web page, that was involved in a breach years ago. Trying to investigate this, the web page was in German (which I have no experience with), and I am not a soccer fan (other than Ted Lasso, of course), so really assume this purported breach was an error.

    Upon initially installing the software from the McAfee web page, I got an animated screen that said something to the effect that “we are searching the web for potential breeches”. I had no idea how long such a process should take, so I left it running on my browser. Checking back periodically, throughout the day, still showing the animation. The next morning, same story, so I contacted the support link and received a prompt reply to exit the program, and restart. I guess that should have been intuitive, but it would have been nice (if this is a common event) to have the screen state something like “if this is taking more than XX minutes, exit and retry”. Indeed, exiting and restarting the program was much quicker at digging up the archive of old breeches and presence of some or another piece of my biographical history or a phone number on a “data broker” site.

    The promised remedy of McAfee is that they will contact the brokers of your personal information and request removal of same.
    Perhaps this will work with Data Brokers, but my limited understanding of the Dark Web evil-doers is that they really don’t play nice in the sandbox, and work outside the realm of any security corporation’s polite requests.

    So the value of this process is dubious when trying to shield from the Dark Web, and not sure it is worth a subscription fee to McAfee.

    I can get the same information from Dashlane or OnePass, plus all the extra helpful utilities to keep your info and passwords private that these passwords managers offer.

    The software activation on my MacBookAir was for a browser based membership. This included an iPhone app, accomplishing similar functions on the mobile phone as were available on the computer. But it seems to let you work through your list of compromised passwords while sitting in the waiting room or riding the subway, so a good use of otherwise downtime.

    There is a McAfee Online Account cleanup module, that promises to help you close and expunge all accounts that you no longer use, but remain in their data bank, such as contact and credit card information. However, when I ran this module it only identified one such company, listed as “low risk”, and that was Google. I really do not think that I want to close my Google account, and loose the variety of programs and modules they offer: calendar, search, email, electronic payments, and the Authenticator which actually protects your accounts that you log in to, by offering a pretty robust 2 factor authentication.

    The data insecurity results presented to me was a collection of data breeches and presence of my info on the sites of data brokers. McAfee will put in a request for removal, which will take from 45 -60 days, with a re-scan occurring every three months. I was present on 43 sites, although some were name variants of the same company. Others are the usual sites that promise to list for you (for a fee) with all the dirt on a person, given their name and city, you can find out all arrests, financial shortfalls, divorces, etc. Spokeo, FreeBackgroundCheck, and 411Locate were a few that I recall from occasions when trying to find the current address of a high school classmate, etc. Indeed, McAfee’s request to these actual legitimate, although somewhat sleazy, companies to remove my data might well be heeded. I’ll hear back from McAfee in 45-60 days about the progress.

    On the plus side, unlike some antivirus software that I have used in the past, the program did not noticeably slow down my computer. Since it is not a separate program running all the time in the background, but rather a web based application, the computer was not obviously impaired by the presence of the software.

    To achieve “good enough” security, follow the advice of WireCutter, with these steps:
    Be careful what you click and install
    Don’t turn off automatic updates
    Enable FileVault
    Enable the built-in firewall
    Back up your files
    Use a login password (and enable Touch ID if you can)
    Consider a guest account
    Delete software you don’t need
    Audit your privacy permissions

13. 

    msumulong – August 25, 2023

    Rated 5 out of 5

    McAfee started decades ago as an anti-virus software. The earliest virus I can remember thirty years ago was a virus named Brain. Now McAfee is a full fledged subscription based security software service. One such service is McAfee’s Privacy and Identity Guard. This review is to determine whether or not such a service is required or not.

    McAfee’s Privacy and Identity Guard is basically a suite of three services namely Identity Monitoring; Personal Data Cleanup; and Online Account Cleanup.

    The first service Identity Guard is pretty much a generic service as it simply monitors you email accounts if they have been hacked. In my case the service has detected email hacks as far as way back in 2016. As mentioned earlier, this is pretty much a generic service as Apple and Google also notifies you of email account hacks. Main difference here is that McAfee traces which accounts and services were hacked and when.

    The second service is Personal Data Cleanup. Now here things become interesting. Upon running the scan, McAfee detected 35 data brokers that have access to my personal data. We all know that these data brokers sells our information to other parties which further compounds the problem. The good thing here is that McAfee can clean up the data. But do note that it may take 30-45 days to complete wipe out your data. But at least you’ll have some piece of mind.

    Lastly, an online account cleanup service is offered. This basically monitors which accounts have the most traffic. In my case it would be my Microsoft account since I am primarily a Windows user.

    That said, McAfee offers a complete suite of security services. And in my personal opinion, the services offered by MvAfee is well worth its subscription because you’ll never know when you need it until you need it.

14. 

    MigDigital – August 26, 2023

    Rated 3 out of 5

    This is review of McAfee Privacy & Identify Guard

    This is mostly to interpret as service rather than a software itself. The service of identifying identity risk and clean up is the main point via easy way with a membership.

    Although it sound obvious, the service at glance is good in term of ease to navigate through the options and enter personal information that might been compromised. The type of information the application ask is personal email, telephone number and personal name. These are part of Security Center options that provide three category of service: Identity Monitory, Personal Data Clean Up, Identity Restoration.

    For Identity Monitory, it is basically a one place to see what type of personal information by what site and possibly what organization that has had breach. It shows data reference like “personal phone number” breached by Organization Name or Website/Business Name. i.e “phone number” by Experian to name most know public case. Similarly can see personal email in same format.
    In the application can see the full picture by Type of Breach summary which list types All, Email Breaches, Phone number breaches, Social Security number breaches, Tax ID breaches, Passport breaches, Driver license breaches, Credit card breaches, Bank Account breaches, Health Id breaches, Username Breaches, Date of birth breaches.

    For the review, I only have used email and phone number type to learn how effective is the service.

    Within the same, it has a second section that allow to see addressed breaches. This is summary of the breaches that has been cleared out and set manually by user as Mark as Addressed. Not automatically associated with the service from Personal Data Cleanup.

    For Personal Data Clean up, upon entering personal email and name, phone number, it lookup for breached business or sites and organization, and return the full list that the service find. With the option Auto Protection on, it provide the service to automatically scanning for the user profile with given data by user and request for removal. In the UI, it provide a summary list of In Progress of the request for clean up and second report under Removed.

    During the process of setting initially, the application would show warning that the clean up would take several weeks, (I can’t remember if exactly the message refereed to between 4 weeks to 8 weeks or more) . But as for this review, I started about two weeks about and still shows In Progress with Zero Removed.

    On the topic of automatically scanning, it is done not every day, it scan every certain schedule date. For instance, as of this review, it shows that last scan was 08.15 2023 14:54PM EST and next scan is 11.09.2023 12:38PM EST. Have to say quite precision on the scanning information and quite wide range between last time and next time scanning considering how frequent is the data breach occurrs.

    The service of Identity Restoration, this is a manual and hands on process requiring to make call to a specialist and provide Identity Theft coverage up to $1,000,000. But not clear from the product “McAfee Privacy & Identify Guard” includes this as checking upon its referred plan site, it is included in McAfee + Advanced, and McAfee+ Ultimate and each provide different amount of coverage up to $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 with different terms and conditions. . On the other hand, of home or car insurance policy or via credit card might already have it. But come to notice that the coverage amount is not worst in the market.

    In conclusion, the service give access to see which businesses/organization has unauthorized data as result of data breach. It is easy to use for this purpose, but the aspect of removal clean data service that would be the most needed solution can’t tell immediately nor have assurance that it is cleaned up as it take time and breaches repeat over time. In fact entering personal key data for data clean didn’t make me feel safe as McAfee itself could be the same giving away the data as performing the clean up, although I think this is not unique to McAfee.
    And the service for identity restoration demand additional call effort and doesn’t seem very different to what is offered in the market except of coverage and its terms and condition.

    Hence it is average as individual service but needed to have on hand in today’s world.

15. 

    Jim1590 – August 27, 2023

    Rated 3 out of 5

    Really McAfee, you can do so much better. All of us have a lot of data out there on the internet and whenever we stumble across one piece, there are dozens more aggrigating someplace. Really for 99% of us, who cares? Well, we all should. The amount of material out there for each of us will boggle the mind. Most of it has no reason to be out there. Addresses from 10 years ago? Every single phone number linked to you in some way? That dorky email address you made in 10th grade? It’s all out there waiting to be found.

    The effort put out by McAfee is adequate. The price point is fine for the year service. The data brokers they turned up for my name was interesting. However, I already have a service doing all of this for me and I wasn’t surprised that McAfee only turned up a few dozen, almost all of them slight variations of the same main broker.

    McAfee submitted removal requests so those should be gone prior my existing provider does their next quarterly scan. The interface is decent and easy to navigate around.

    So, why the middle of the range review? Simple, they are not discerning enough. They did not ask enough identifying information to make a VERY SPECIFIC search for ME. I already know what is out there for someone that shares my name but is about a decade older and we have never lived within 30 minutes of each other. I know this because the other service said, “Hey, is this you?” and I was able to say no.

    Now, why the problem? Well that other guy has a pretty eye-opening criminal record that involves someone being unalived. Some other things that mean he won’t be working at the local middle school. McAfee submitted removal requests of those records on my behalf. It is what it is, but someone with a different date of birth and address history is not benefiting off of my data search for removal.

    Really McAfee, clean up the program to be more discerning and you will be one of the better services.

16. 

    Todd – August 28, 2023

    Rated 3 out of 5

    Doesn’t give you all the sites that have breached your info to the dark web, and or other breaches. For the 99.99 costper year the info given per site breach is more minimal in my opinion. It doesn’t say what all was released, you just assume most all your login credentials and possibly debit/credit card by each website named in the breach report. Although Macfee doesn’t mention all this.

    I do use Mcafee on my desktop and laptop for extra protection from maleware. It does work pretty well for the price and is easy to use and navigate,it also gets frequent updates.

    After using this for a week, I don’t think I could recommend it for the 99.99 a year cost per PC or device. I do highly suggest changing your password and a strong one at that before spending extra on this type of software. The extra effort on your part does go a long way, when it comes to security against hacking…

    I’ve never used this type of software for identity theft monitoring and after this I don’t plan to as well. Just simply be smart with changing frequently your passwords and using very strong ones to boot.

17. 

    mobilelawyer – August 30, 2023

    Rated 4 out of 5

    Identity and Privacy Protection should be of great concern to anyone using the internet, and this software is designed to grab the bull by the horns and methodically wrestle it to the ground. Using it to the best effect requires time and patience, and the gratification may not be instant.

    The more details you can provide, the better the monitoring, and the more complete the protection. Name, date of birth, address, social security number, etc. You plug those into the program, and it searches for accounts and websites where your personal information is recorded and reports the results back to you.

    Old online accounts, for example, were rounded up by this program, many of which I did not recall or had never heard of. It found approximately 36 password breaches- where information had been exposed online. The cure was go to the respective website and manually change the passwords, or, where the account was no longer being used, to delete the account. I am still working on those.

    In other instances, old and dated information was found on multiple websites. I mashed a button to clean those up and was told it would take 30 to 45 days for the information to be deleted. I will have to wait to find out the specifics. The program does not indicate whether I will be notified and updated when the change is complete, or exactly what got removed or modified.

    I also had the program perform a search for “risky accounts”. I pressed the button, and the dial spun around for several turns. The final report showed that no risky accounts were found. I checked again later, and the program returned the same result.

    One question that I have about the results is that when you enter your name, you provide your full name, middle name, if you have one, and your last name and any suffixes. So, if your name was “James Brandon Smith”, does the program check for accounts and data for “Jim Smith” and/or “James Smith” and/or “James B. Smith” and/or J.B. Smith, depending on whatever common and routine aliases you may have or use? I assume there is a provision for adding all the variations that a user may have, to make the final results the most complete and reassuring.

    My subscription extends for one year, and credit card information can be added to automatically renew it.

    The program allows you to specify a plethora of information to be monitored: up to 10 credit cards, 10 bank accounts, 10 email addresses, etc. You can have your social security number and EIN numbers monitored as well.

    Based on the details I provided, and the clean-up sweeps I performed, I was given a protection score of 535 out of 1000, which was rated by the program as “Fair”. The score could be improved by adding more data to monitor, and re-checking under to find additional breaches.

    The subscription allows you to use several devices on the same subscription on Windows and Mac PC’s, iPhone and Android smartphones, and tablets.

    To get the full benefit of this service, you will have to part with lots of personal information and follow many accounts. My use has not proceeded to that level, but those features are there if you want them.

    In concept, the resources are all there. In use, it will take time to see how well they will ultimately work.

18. 

    cad8099 – September 2, 2023

    Rated 1 out of 5

    Right off the start, this had me start with my email address and it already was showing some hits and breaches. I was surprised at how many showed.

    But why I am giving 1 star right now. For me, I went to input some info like name, birth, address. This would not let me continue to the next step as it has the country grayed out and would not let me select country to verify. I believe this kept me from being able to continue. This was under the check for your exposed data task. This to me is a big deal as this is what this software is supposed to do, and I can’t get past this part.

    But that said, you can add a lot of info to monitor from your license number, SSN, tax id and a lot more. You can set up how you want to receive those notifications via email or text.

    I just wished this was more user friendly like I mentioned above that this would not let me select my country so I could not let this do my data cleanup. Because of this, I was not impressed with this software. This was probably just something that is a one off, but enough for me to not recommend this.

19. 

    jkj1 – September 2, 2023

    Rated 3 out of 5

    The McAfee Privacy and Identity Guard software package is very basic. For the price, I expected more. There are 3 main parts – Personal Data Cleanup, Online Account Cleanup, and Identity Monitoring. For an additional charge that is reasonable for the first year but higher on subsequent years, VPN and antivirus software can be added to the package.

    Personal Data Cleanup was useful. I knew that data brokers, mostly phone and name look-up websites, had my phone number, address and other personal information. But I would have to pay to access the details and would have to do all of the removal work myself, with no guarantee of success. The McAfee program found the 36 instances and sent requests to the data brokers to remove the info. Whether they actually do remove it based on the request is yet to be seen. Ten days later all the requests are still pending.

    I’m not sure what the Online Account Cleanup does. I evidently don’t have what it looks for because it found zero accounts.

    To fully utilize the Identity Monitoring feature, all email addresses, credit card numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank accounts, passport numbers, phone numbers, etc. have to be entered. The software then monitors for breaches (stolen data). Maybe I’m paranoid, but couldn’t someone hack McAfee and get all my credit card and bank account numbers in one easy place? I opted to just have it check my phone numbers, emails and birthdate.

    I knew my cell phone number was on the dark web and McAfee did find it. The corrective action was to install a spam blocking app and to register my phone on the National Do Not Call List – both of which I’d done years ago. McAfee found my birthdate on the dark web and one of my email accounts. My instructions were to not use my birthday as a PIN and to change the email password. There was no magic to undo the damage. Just common sense preventative measures. I’ve had 4 actual data breaches, 2 of them recent, but it didn’t find those. All the things it found on the dark web had been there for over a year.

    After getting the activation email with links to some of the features, I had trouble getting back to the dashboard where I can see the progress of data cleanup, add more devices, add more things to monitor, etc. The McAfee Personal Security app just takes me to my subscription page where it encourages me to set up auto renewal and download to more devices. After some searching I found the page I needed, but even that page won’t let me see the information regarding my email breach. The only way I found to get back to it is through the email that alerted me.

    I didn’t see the need to install the software on more than one device. The protection isn’t device specific. After the initial scans for data that’s been sitting on the dark web for a while, the only communication with McAfee is an email if a new breach of something it has been asked to monitor occurs. But if needed, the software can be shared with an unlimited number of PCs, laptops, smartphones or tablets.

    When I first signed up, the account creation page had a place to enter my credit card information followed by an ACTIVATE button. After entering the credit card numbers I decided to hold off before activating so I could read the Auto-Renewal fine print. When I backed out I immediately got an email telling me that my account was now active – even though I hadn’t completed the process. So a word of warning – do not enter your credit card information unless you are 100% ready to sign up. Auto-renewal can be turned off. If you leave it on, know that you have to cancel 30 days BEFORE the auto-renewal date.

    Because of past data breaches, I have access to free Identity Monitoring services better than the ones this McAfee software offers. One of them has a password checker to see if any of my passwords are on the dark web. That’s a very useful piece of information that is lacking in the McAfee software.

    The McAfee software could be useful for someone who hasn’t checked to see if any of their information is on the dark web. But for someone like me who is already aware, there wasn’t much value added.

20. 

    Jordan – September 3, 2023

    Rated 5 out of 5

    You hear constantly about cyber security issues going on with big companies. It often makes you think how safe your information is if things like this are going on, even with local law enforcement agencies.

    Well, McAfee has made it easier to constantly monitor your personal information in real-time, and instant notifications. I decided to give McAfee a try, as I have previously used their different services in the past.

    The activation was extremely simple. You download the software, enter you key code, and some personal information. You’ll be running a scan of your information almost immediately.

    I was amazed at how detailed the information provided was. I was able to make a few password changes to my most vulnerable accounts immediately after being notified of possibly compromised accounts.

    To be on the safe side, I run a scan on a daily basis. You can never be too safe. It is definitely a great tool to have, and definitely worth the money.

    Keep your personal information secure, and know when you have been compromised. I would recommend McAfee Privacy and Identity Guard to anyone.

21. 

    Androidaholic – September 3, 2023

    Rated 5 out of 5

    Macafee security software including the privacy and undentity guard aspects is one of the best there is. Macafee offers comprehensive security software that digs deep into the internet to find data breaches with your info in them that can put your well being at risk. With Privacy and Indentity guard you can monitor email addresses, phone numbers, locations where you have lived, your name and the names of family members, your date of birth, SSN and the list goes on. Basically, everything that can damage your finances, personal reputation and get you hacked like your email or phone can be monitored and action can be taken to remedy the situation. You can go to people finder sights (broker sights) and remove information that can be damaging to you and your family. It should also be known that you can get real time notifications regarding any breaches or new info so immediate action can be taken. It does take a lot of work to clean up information off of the people finder sights because basically if one has info you want removed they all will and you have to go to each sight and remove the info one by one. This takes hours to do but in the end can be worth it. The identity monitoring feature is very comprehensive and is very important to have in this day and age. Everyone should keep a close eye on there identity because you can be wiped out financially. It is also important to guard your reputation and being able to clean up your info that could be incorrect is also important. These things are really bad right now and they do not appear to be getting better any time soon. Therefore, it is wise to take action to protect yourself and your family and be proactive to avoid a catastrophe taht could ruin your life. No matter where you look Macafee is one of the top providers for software like this and is a good choice to protect you and your family.

22. 

    gabemstr – September 8, 2023

    Rated 5 out of 5

    Honestly I feel that this is a great product for what it is. I’ve had this in the past and signed up again for a 1 user 1 year subscription. Yes they obtain a lot of information from you that is questionable on how they retain the info, but they also provide you with information that you may care to know that you didn’t know, such as data breaches and if your information was leaked anywhere that may prompt you to change and or update your information due to it.

    For example, I have a reported protection score of 506 out of 1000, which is rated as “fair” but is honestly pretty bad. This means that my login information is leaked to a degree, and I know what they are already because I’ve received emails from these institutions already too (such as Wendy’s and Dropbox).

    You can view the breaches detected based on your email address which shows the websites breached or compromised as well as if your password was exposed. However, all you can do about it is update your password really to protect yourself now from this point in time.

    It’s good information to have and know, so that you can wipe yourself off the internet where you want it to be, and not let people have information that you never wanted them to have.

    Some websites shown you may not even recognize, but your email was used on there, so you can take care of these if you feel the need to. The point of this privacy and identity guard is to guard your information and let you know what you may not have known.

23. 

    Kristof33 – September 8, 2023

    Rated 3 out of 5

    After a recent fraudulent unemployment claim was made at my current place of work, I’ve definitely been interested in finding out what of my info is out there and how can I further protect and clear it. I had high hopes for this McAfree personal identity guard software, but I’m concerned for my privacy further and maybe the in process items to clear will clear and I can give a better score, but as of now, I’m just concerned. It asks a bunch of info and walks you through the process of learning where and when breaches have occurred and recommendations to fix them. The more info you add, the more you find out about what info of yours is out there. They can also remove personal info trackers that have your family’s names and , previous and current living, location, age, phone numbers and more. That currently is “in process” since acquiring the app a few weeks ago. So my concern lies with the fine print about how the company use the data they collect and use for relevant advertising and third party collaboration on products but I want less of my info out there, not more. I also made a password unique to this product just a few weeks ago and I received a password notification that that password was found in a data leak. I have a one year subscription so I will continue to test this over time with info I feel safe volunteering. I also would recommend a extra layer of security getting into the app and my info. I just don’t feel that safe with software and that my info is protected securely.

24. 

    DonMc – September 12, 2023

    Rated 4 out of 5

    I watched 60 Minutes a few years ago, and the head of FBI Cybersecurity was asked, “What are the chances that [a foreign country] has my social security number?” The FBI agent answered, “There’s a 110% chance that [a foreign country] has your social security number!”
    If that doesn’t motivate you to take some necessary steps towards protecting yourself, nothing will.

    One of the credit monitoring companies offers identity protection that’s really good, but it’s $25 dollars per month. Enter McAfee Privacy and Identity Guard. This program offers a comprehensive package of programs to protect your identity from Dark Web malefactors.
    My personal favorite is Personal Data Cleanup. This program scans 40 high risk data broker sites for your personal data. If your information is found on these sites you can either contact them, or have McAfee contact them and ask them to remove it. As a retired law enforcement officer, it’s invaluable to have my data scrubbed from those sites. A few sites will not display your address, but the names of family members as well.

    ID Monitoring will alert you if your information is found on the Dark Web. It’ll give you a head start towards protecting your credit so you can contact the three credit monitoring agencies.

    This is a comprehensive protection package. I lock my credit when I’m not looking to apply for a loan or a new credit card. Protecting your identity is something people should take seriously. This Privacy and Identity Guard from McAfee is a great place to start.

25. 

    Joe1015 – September 13, 2023

    Rated 4 out of 5

    It’s been a week since I’ve been using McAfee Privacy and Identity Guard and it seems to be working as promised.

    Set up is easy, and the fact that I already own other McAfee products, it is even easier with my existing account. The 3 main features of this product are:
    1. Identity Monitoring. As the name implies, your identity is monitored 24/7 through the data you provide such as social security, driver’s license, passport, bank accounts, email addresses, etc.

    2. Personal Data Cleanup. This feature, that I particularly like, monitors and finds your personal information for sale from data brokers and removes it. As soon as I signed in, it found 44 profiles that are in the process of being removed. According to McAfee, it takes between 30 to 45 days to purge the data. I’ll make sure to post an update for the results.

    3. Online Account Cleanup. This feature reviews all of your online accounts and makes recommendations to erase those you no longer use and rates your accounts in terms of financial data risk exposure and breach potential. I was surprised to find some popular accounts among the high risk, a real eye opener.

    I use several privacy and identity services and I can say that McAfee is as quick as the other services at alerting of a breach. The feature I like the most is the personal data cleanup and I’m curious to find out how effective it is. From exploring this software, it doesn’t appear to be offering credit score access or VPN nor ID theft recovery services as other McAfee products already offer those features and benefits. This is a pure privacy and identity guard as the name implies. This service is a good addition to any ID theft services, not perfect but quite useful.

26. 

    MaramK – September 22, 2023

    Rated 5 out of 5

    Exactly as prescribed, highly recommended item, strongly advised

27. 

    AndreB – October 15, 2023

    Rated 5 out of 5

    This security software does everything it promised.

28. 

    Jds0990 – November 11, 2023

    Rated 5 out of 5

    Very good product, already notified me of multiple breeches.

29. 

    JSXeno – December 23, 2023

    Rated 1 out of 5

    Don’t trust McAfee, they are a disgusting company.

    I have had McAfee in the past and they planted a trojan in your computer after you uninstall it to make artificial problems! This company needs to burn for their BS. Don’t buy their products. Ever!

30. 

    shoppers – January 15, 2024

    Rated 5 out of 5

    You can’t go wrong with anything that McAfee puts on the market.