Every time you interact with a website online, you probably give away some personal information, even if it’s only your email address. Over time, your digital footprint grows and grows until it threatens your privacy. And yet, you don’t want to become an internet hermit, cutting off all access. Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection scans both legal and illegal data collection methods and helps you regain control of your digital footprint. Yes, there are plenty of products that flag breaches and point out exposed personal information, but Bitdefender provides you with the tools to proactively defend your privacy and the knowledge to understand what you're accomplishing. Depending on your needs, that benefit might justify the service's high price.
A yearly subscription for Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection costs $79.99, but it is currently discounted to $39.99 for the first year. That’s quite a bit less, but it doesn’t attempt automated personal data removal or active protection against identity theft. There are many approaches to privacy and identity protection. Bitdefender doesn’t try to replace LifeLock or similar identity theft protection services that aim to detect and remediate identity theft. Rather, it focuses on protecting your online accounts, data, and reputation.
Note that if you do want full-on identity theft protection, you can get it with Bitdefender Ultimate Security. This suite includes Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, access to Bitdefender's VPN with no bandwidth or server limits, and two tiers of identity protection.
You pay from $124.99 to $339.99 per year for LifeLock, depending on the level of protection you opt for. Note that you’re better off choosing Norton 360 With LifeLock, which runs from $149.99 to $349.99 depending on the protection level. That extra $10 to $20 gets you Editors’ Choice-winning security suite protection for your devices.
Similar Products
Personal data removal services such as Optery and Privacy Bee search for your personal profile data on legitimate data broker websites and automatically remove it from those collections. Bitdefender also identifies some legitimate sites that might have your private data, but only takes an advisory position on opt-out actions. Optery’s pricing ranges from free (with no automated data removal) to the fully automated Ultimate tier at $249 per year. And Privacy Bee goes for a straight $197 per year.
Bitdefender’s features aren’t unique. NordPass, Proton Pass, and many other password utilities report on breached passwords so they can help you recover. Many antivirus utilities report when your personal data shows up in a data breach. However, Bitdefender does an unusually detailed and informative job organizing and presenting its findings. It also offers active help with actions to improve your privacy, and its explanatory articles help you understand what’s important.
This service is available online on the Bitdefender Central website. There’s no local app to install. To get started, log in to your Bitdefender Central account or create an account if you don’t already have one. On the My Subscriptions page, enter your activation code and click to start the process.
You might expect the service to want you to enter oceans of personal data, letting it know what to look for on the web. Nothing could be further from the truth. All it needs is your email address to get started. You can add more details, such as your full name, phone numbers, and additional email addresses, later. If you do, it verifies emails and phone numbers by sending an authentication code. This keeps malefactors from abusing the service to snoop on private data other than their own.
Bitdefender immediately goes to work searching the web, both legitimate and dark websites. During testing, it displayed a note saying the scan shouldn’t take more than a minute, which proved to be correct. At this point, it returned a boatload of personal information it found using the minimal data supplied.
The Digital Identity Monitor Dashboard is your overview of the service’s findings. There’s a lot to see here. Fortunately, you don’t have to master it all at once. The dashboard has four main sections: Digital Identity Protection Score, Digital Footprint, Dark Web Monitoring, and News.
Along the top of the dashboard area, you find clickable headings that open tabs with more detail: Dashboard, Digital Footprint, Dark Web Monitoring, Fraud Assistance, Data Brokers, and News. Clicking the More label brings up a tiny menu with Data Brokers and Event History.
When last reviewed, this service included a tab called Impersonation Check that ran a scan for social media accounts that might be impersonating you. My Bitdefender contact confirmed that this feature is no longer present, at least not for new users.
Digital Identity Protection Score
The dashboard sums up your overall score as a number from 0 to 100, giving you an overview of how you’re doing. Next to it is a risk map, a visual indicator of just why your score is where it is. Both include links to Learn more. Trust me, you won’t understand the risk map without clicking through to this explanation.
I was surprised to find my score down to 2 out of 100. The risk map details explained why. Bitdefender maps privacy risks in two dimensions. Items on the left have the least impact, while items on the right have the most. For example, exposure of your IP address has a low impact, while exposure of your username and password has a maximal impact. The vertical position represents the frequency of this exposure type among users, with the most frequent types at the top.
Scrolling down to the expert view, I found a map with markers specific to my situation, positioned based on frequency and impact. Clicking a marker yielded details. For example, one marker showed email and password exposed, with an impact of 10.
At this point, I naturally wanted to link directly to the actual problem. Wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, the dashboard’s score area doesn’t let you do that. The closest it comes is a list of actions to improve the score. I found that each list item was a data breach that included my personal information, and in every case, the suggested action was “…change your password, enable multi-factor authentication and other security measures.” For the many listed items that were data collections with no specific website associated, that advice proved useless.
Digging in for details, I found that each item is split out, changing the password and setting up MFA as separate actions, allowing me to either mark the action as completed or record that I can’t complete it. I went through five items and marked them as completed, but doing so didn’t move the needle on the protection score meter.
Digital Footprint
The next dashboard panel reports on your digital footprint, which Bitdefender describes as “all the personal information that can be found about your persona online.” The service found 18 legitimate connections, things like Google, Yahoo, and PCMag.com. When I clicked through to the full Digital Footprint page, I saw all the found connections.
The line chart below shows the evolution of your digital footprint. Most panels include a link explaining why the data is important or why you should take certain actions. A news panel offers articles that go a bit deeper. I appreciate this emphasis on helping users understand how digital exposure affects them and what they can do about it.
Data Breaches
The digital footprint panel on the dashboard lists legal sites that contain information about you. The next panel, Dark Web Monitoring, concerns the appearance of personal information in data from breaches. You see the total number of exposures, a chart comparing your exposure to that of the Bitdefender user community, and a percentage showing how many necessary actions you’ve taken.
A separate panel charts your personal data breach history over the last 10 years. More important than history, though, is taking the actions you can to address these breaches. I’ll cover just how that works below.
As noted, you just need to supply your email address to get Bitdefender started checking your digital footprint. During its analysis, it identifies other components of your identity and uses them to expand its reach. But you can help the process by providing more information directly.
To the far right of the tab headings in the online dashboard, click Data Monitoring. This opens a simple page that lets you add up to 10 email addresses and five phone numbers. You’ll have to verify each one by entering the code sent by Bitdefender.
In a different take on online monitoring, Bitdefender can scour your inbox to identify services that you’ve interacted with. You do have to give it full access to your email account, but since you’re already trusting Bitdefender to protect your privacy, that may not be a problem. Note that this feature only works with webmail from Google and Microsoft.
Once you’ve connected your account, Bitdefender warns that analysis can take hours or even a day. The required full access is similar to that required by the Online Account Cleanup system in McAfee+. And as with McAfee+, you’ll probably want to revoke full access once the analysis is complete.
Your digital footprint is not a bad thing. You need to provide information to the services and websites you want to connect with. The problem is that your footprint spreads to the point where your privacy is affected. To review your footprint and reduce its spread, start by clicking the Digital Footprint tab in the online dashboard.
On this tab, you’ll find a collection of panels representing all the companies and services that Bitdefender has determined may hold your personal data. It can be a bit overwhelming. I had nearly two dozen items displayed, and at the time of my previous review, that figure was more than 60. But it’s worth your while to work through the list, however long it takes.
Clicking the Manage your data link in one of the panels opens a page with a large collection of information and action items. A small panel on the left provides a brief description of the company or service. A live label indicates that you’re using the service; just click to change that. An overview panel lists the types of personal data Bitdefender expects the site to hold.
If you recognize the service as an ongoing relationship, there’s nothing you need to do. However, you can still click to have Bitdefender help you send a personal data request to the company. You can give Bitdefender permission to send the request through your Gmail account or simply display the pre-written message and copy it into any email.
You’ll surely find some accounts that you no longer use. These aren’t just harmless leftovers—if the site is breached, it can expose your private information. Bitdefender provides links to help you change the password, set up multi-factor authentication, or delete the account. It can also help you send an official account deletion email in much the same way it sends the data request. If you use Bitdefender to send the message, it tracks the 30-day period during which the company must comply.
Getting Bitdefender clear on just what personal info is yours and what isn’t helps it in its ongoing search for your personal data on the legitimate web. When your details turn up in a data breach, that’s more serious. Bitdefender lists all the breaches that include your data and offers detailed advice. This list is on the Dark Web Monitoring tab, which can also be reached by clicking the dashboard’s View all data breaches button.
In the current list of found breaches, more than 50, I found a mix of familiar websites, unfamiliar ones, and collections with no specific website associated. Every entry displayed the same advice—change your password and enable multi-factor authentication. Given that not all accounts support multi-factor authentication and there’s no place to change a collection's password, this one-size-fits-all advice doesn’t seem appropriate. The page initially shows 10 breaches, with a link to display more, and each breach is so detailed that you can only see two at a time. I’d like to see a more compact display, with advice that actually matches the type of breach.
Along with the identical advice, Bitdefender provides a Take Action button for each found breach. The resulting page yields an impressive array of information about what happened, a display that strongly distinguishes Bitdefender from competitors that merely list breaches with minimal detail.
The detail page lists exactly what type of personal information it found exposed, including email accounts, geographic locations, passwords, phone numbers, usernames, and more. I found that, in some cases, it even displayed the last few characters of an exposed password. It’s a bit of a shock to see verification that your password is just hanging out in the public collection of breached data.
More importantly, the detail page expands its action advice to a set of specific actions and indications: change the password, enable multi-factor authentication, delete the account, or report that you never had an account. Each comes with a button to mark the action as done or indicate that you can’t take the specified action.
As noted, many of the breaches I found involved data collection rather than specific accounts. The detail page explains, “Data breach collections found online can't be traced to a specific company, so it's not possible to contact them to find out more or hold them accountable.” That makes sense. What doesn’t truly make sense is the single Take Action choice, which still tells you to change the password for this collection. Likewise, the advice to change passwords for all associated accounts makes no sense, as you don’t get a list. Is it saying to change every password? Even with a powerful password manager, that’s a tall order.
It’s important to review the reported breaches, take whatever actions you can, and mark them as complete. When you’ve taken the essential actions (changing the password and enabling multi-factor), the Take Action button in the main list changes to Learn more.
In testing, it didn’t take me long to work through the first 10 reported breaches. I wish that once I finished with an item, it would move to the end of the list. As it is, to keep powering through the list, you must scroll farther and farther down for each item, seeking ones that still have a Take Action button. Just to make it more annoying, each return from an item detail page to the main list resets it to show the top of the list. To get to the last item, I had to scroll to the bottom and click Show More five times.
From the Dashboard page, clicking More and then Data Brokers opens the service’s Data Brokers page. This one’s strange. At the top, the first thing you see is a set of FAQs, in case you don’t understand the concept of a data broker. Next, there’s a disclaimer from Bitdefender saying, “because of legal constraints, we can’t verify what private information they own about you.” Really? Apparently, those legal constraints don’t apply to the many personal data removal services such as DeleteMe, Incogni, and Privacy Bee.
Scrolling down, you’ll find Bitdefender’s list of the top 8 data brokers. Each has a link to the broker site, so you can search for your own data. And each has a link to remove your data, if found. Specifically, that link leads you through the process of making a Verifiable Consumer Request, as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Compared with an actual personal data removal service, Bitdefender’s data broker feature is almost laughably limited. Incogni and Optery check for your personal data at hundreds of sites, and the broker list for Privacy Bee runs more than 1,000. Even DeleteMe checks nearly 100 brokers, all compared with eight for Bitdefender. And the dedicated services automatically handle opting out of data collection. What you get with Bitdefender is barely more than you could do with no help whatsoever.
I mentioned that the data brokers component includes an FAQ to ensure Bitdefender users understand what a data broker is. This service aims to educate consumers about the dangers to their privacy. On the News page, you find links to articles on privacy written by Bitdefender’s own experts. The quantity of articles isn’t overwhelming—there have been a total of six so far this year.
On the Fraud Assistance page, you’ll find action items, not just information. This page covers nine types of fraud, among them tax identity theft, credit card fraud, and child identity theft. Each comes with a Take Action button that opens a page with numerous specific actions you can take to resolve the problem. Where appropriate, the action panels include links to sources such as the Federal Trade Commission and the IRS. And each panel includes a pair of icons, one to mark it as useful and the other to submit feedback on any trouble you may have.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Bitdefender)
Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection scans the web and the dark web, reporting any instances of your personal data. You get help reducing your digital footprint, though the service doesn’t aim to detect and mitigate identity theft, nor does it actively remove your information from data broker sites. I wouldn’t pay $79.99 per year for that, but if you opt for the maxed-out Bitdefender Ultimate Security suite, Digital Identity Protection is included. Privacy protection is a broad concept, making direct comparisons between many privacy products difficult. In the privacy realm, we've identified Optery and Privacy Bee as Editors' Choice winners. Like Bitdefender, they help you track data brokers that hold your personal information, but unlike Bitdefender, they fully and effectively automate the process of opting you out of those collections.
STILL ON THE FENCE?
About Our Expert
When the IBM PC was new, I served as the president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years. That’s how I met PCMag’s editorial team, who brought me on board in 1986. In the years since that fateful meeting, I’ve become PCMag’s expert on security, privacy, and identity protection, putting antivirus tools, security suites, and all kinds of security software through their paces.
Before my current security gig, I supplied PCMag readers with tips and solutions on using popular applications, operating systems, and programming languages in my "User to User" and "Ask Neil" columns, which began in 1990 and ran for almost 20 years. Along the way, I wrote more than 40 utility articles, as well as Delphi Programming for Dummies and six other books covering DOS, Windows, and programming. I also reviewed thousands of products of all kinds, ranging from early Sierra Online adventure games to AOL’s precursor Q-Link.
In the early 2000s, I turned my focus to security and the growing antivirus industry. After years of working with antivirus, I’m known throughout the security industry as an expert on evaluating antivirus tools. I serve as an advisory board member for the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO), an international nonprofit group dedicated to coordinating and improving testing of anti-malware solutions.
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