Ah, the Problem with Transparency

By TheWild1 at 23 May, 2008, 12:01 am, Categories : General

LifeLock

TWI Dictionary: Transparency - the amount of business plan and results relayed to the mass.

For the public, a high level of transparency is always preferred, and for quick and easy growth transparency is also good for the business itself. It has that vibe that you stand behind what you are doing.

That is exactly what Todd Davis of LifeLock was trying to conceive, until it back fired in his face that is.

For those that don’t know, LifeLock specializes in adding an extra gear of safety to people’s identity. The amount of identity fraud is rapidly increasing, while the chance of being caught is rapidly decreasing. So it is a no wonder why many would be drawn to LifeLock. Especially when the founder shares his social security number with everyone.

That amount of high transparency helped Davis quickly spark his business. If he was willingly to put his own code out there, then how could this fail, so people thought.

Turns out that transparency is not always a good thing. Even Davis wasn’t immune to fraud-ers. Apparently a bright mind in Texas finally cracked through the system by borrowing $500 from some small online payday loan business. Now the system that seemed so sure because of its high transparency, suddenly looks like it is a complete flop.

When asked about the situation, Davis argues that the small payday company didn’t check through the three major bureaus. Too bad nobody cares. Many people are now suing the company because the system doesn’t say what it promised it would.

So much for transparency. It looks like they just lost much much more than they gained by. Make sure your system is solid before sharing it with the world. Sometimes you just got to cover you back.

image source - ryanhealy.typepad.com