LifeLock deletes its app and all user data due to security concerns

LifeLock announced in a blog post that the company’s Wallet app for Android and iOS may not be fully compliant with PCI security standards. Because of this, LifeLock has pulled the app—and set it to automatically delete users’ data the next time it’s opened. Talk about a thorough cleaning. On his blog, LifeLock CEO Todd Davis assured users that the company has found no evidence that user data was compromised. Still, the discovery that the app isn’t as secure as it could be drove the company to delete all the app’s user data from its servers, and take the unusual step of making the app self-destruct user data when it’s opened on a smartphone. 

Identity theft security firm LifeLock has pulled its popular Wallet app from availability and taken the unusual step of deleting all data stored by current users after it deemed the app non-compliant with security standards. “We have determined that certain aspects of the mobile app may not be fully compliant with payment card industry (PCI) security standards,” says LifeLock CEO and Chairman Todd Davis in a blog post announcing the move.”For that reason, we are removing the LifeLock Wallet application from the App Store, Amazon Apps, and Google Play, and when users open the LifeLock Wallet, their information will be deleted in the app.” Davis said there was no evidence that user information had been compromised but that deleting all currently held data was “the right thing to do.” However, deleting data without warning is sure to irritate some users. One TNW reader, who alerted us to the move, told us: “I’ve spent hours putting in data into this application… While some of it is a simple ‘duplication’ of cards in my physical wallet, there is much of it that consists of access codes, policy numbers, membership information – that I have no place else! My fault aside, they should have at least allowed me to back up the data!?”