Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection review

Basic identity theft protection at an affordable price point

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(Image: © Bitdefender)

TechRadar Verdict

Bitdefender covers the basics well for basic identity protection, but Norton LifeLock and other top competitors provide more robust tools for security, recovery, and reimbursement.

Pros

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    Affordable pricing with choice of plans

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    Clear, intuitive interface

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    Annual discount available

Cons

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    Unreliable support options

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    No mobile app

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Although having your identity stolen might seem unlikely, over 10% of American adults experience identity fraud each year. In 2021 alone, these occurrences resulted in damages totaling more than $6.1 billion, demonstrating the financial vulnerability of identity theft across the 5.88 million reported events.

Today, there are numerous choices available to consumers who want to secure their identities. We'll examine the platform's features in detail in our Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection review to help you decide if it's the best choice for you. Bitdefender is one of the most effective identity theft protection services currently, although it lacks some of the technologies offered by its rivals.

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection: Plans and pricing

As of writing, for the lower Standard tier, an annual subscription for Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection is priced at $6.99/month for the first year, before switching to $12.99/month. However, there is also the option for an annual discount savings by paying $69.99 for the year, which reduces it to $5.83/month for the first year. This plan includes a smart SSN tracker, a credit score tracker, lost wallet protection, and up to $1 million of identity theft insurance, along with 1 bureau credit monitoring.

There is also a higher, Premium tier, which increases the cost to $9.99/month for the first year, or $99.99 annually. It adds features such as court records monitoring, change of address monitoring, and up to $2 million in identity theft insurance. It also increases the credit monitoring to all three credit bureaus.

Bitdefender doesn’t offer any short-term subscriptions or free trials.

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection review

You can contact Bitdefender directly for a full refund within 30 days of starting a new subscription (Image credit: Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection)

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection: Features

With Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, your information is continuously monitored throughout both traditional and dark web databases, ensuring that you are notified whenever it appears online. Emails, passwords, social security numbers, credit card information, and phone numbers are just a few of the data pieces it may locate.

The program also has top-notch capabilities for keeping an eye on your digital footprint. Although it's difficult to gauge how well they work in practice, the program's main objective is to make it easier for you to keep track of all of your personal data, such as your name, phone number, home and email addresses, as well as any associated photographs and URLs.

In addition, Bitdefender continuously scans 25 social media platforms for impersonation. Unfortunately, a list of the supported platforms is not displayed on the website. They probably cover Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other well-known networks, but without more details, it's impossible to determine for sure. After waiting for more than a week, we asked a support person for clarification, but regrettably we did not hear back.

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection review

Bitdefender makes it easy to track and visualize your digital footprint (Image credit: Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection)

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection: Interface and in use

Bitdefender is super simple to sign up and only requires your phone number and email address to begin monitoring for identity theft. Although Bitdefender Mobile Security includes mobile apps for both iOS and Android, they do not apply to the platform's identity protection capabilities since this is solely a web-based platform.

Overall, Bitdefender provides consumers with all the information they need to protect their identity, and also looks and functions nicely. If you don't consider the lack of a mobile app to be a deal-breaker, Bitdefender is a very simple service to use.

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection review

The Bitdefender interface enables you to quickly visualize data and view suggested actions (Image credit: Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection)

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection: Support

Like several other identity protection companies, Bitdefender includes a rather comprehensive support page with solutions to frequent inquiries regarding the settings and functionality of the program. If you require assistance with Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, start by visiting the Support Center.

Bitdefender offers several other options beyond the answers available in the Support Center. You can contact the company’s support team directly via a choice of phone, email, or live chat.

Although there are no specified hours for live chat assistance, English-language phone support is offered around-the-clock. The Bitdefender support system may be able to address any issues you run through, however we never received an answer to a question that was quite simple.

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection review

The Bitdefender Support Center contains detailed articles on a number of topics (Image credit: Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection)

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection: The competition

Although Bitdefender is substantially less expensive than many other identity protection services, its feature set is also more constrained.

For instance, Norton LifeLock is one of the most well-known and reputable companies in the sector. Depending on your demands, subscriptions are offered for $124.99, $239.99, and $339.99 annually, though each plan is considerably less for the first year.

That’s obviously much higher than Bitdefender’s $69.99 for the first year, but LifeLock might be worth the extra money for some users.

Furthermore, the three subscription tiers at LifeLock start at $1 million in identity theft insurance, and offer additional features such as buy now, pay later alerts.

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection: Final verdict

With a respectable feature set at a reasonable cost, it's understandable why so many customers rely on Bitdefender to safeguard their identities. However, people seeking more security should think about Norton LifeLock or another company with an even larger feature set. Of course, your demands and budget will ultimately determine whether such amenities are worth the extra money.

As a well-known provider of cybersecurity services, Bitdefender can find any dangers to your identity with ease.

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Alex McOmie

Alex is a writer focused on providing insightful, actionable content that can truly change the way readers approach their finances. 

Alex has been writing as a freelancer for several years on a variety of topics including marketing, parenting, and customer relationships along with personal finance. He’s particularly interested in the way seemingly small adjustments can transform a person’s financial outlook.