PrivacyGuard Review 2026: Who Is It Best For?

PrivacyGuard is a solid service but it may be too expensive compared to other identity theft protection services. To receive all the identity protection and credit protection features, you'll have to pay $24.99/mo for one individual. 

But we appreciate that you can customize your protection by selecting identity theft protection only, credit protection only, or combined total protection. Unfortunately, there are no family plans available and no annual subscriptions, so there's no way to save if you're looking for multi-member protection or long-term savings. 

PrivacyGuard provides a comprehensive overview of your credit and identity footprints. The big question is, is PrivacyGuard worth it?

At a glance

Price	$9.99–$24.99/mo
Identity theft insurance	Up to $1 million
Credit monitoring	Yes
Credit reports	Yes — Experian, TransUnion, Equifax
Credit score	Yes
Identity recovery	Yes
Dark web alerts	Yes
Social media account alerts	No
Learn more	Get PrivacyGuard

Our experience

Signing up for PrivacyGuard was fast and easy. We started by entering basic information like our full name, address, and date of birth, along with our Social Security number (SSN) to verify our identity. 

From the dashboard, we could check our credit scores, receive recommendations on how to increase our scores, and navigate various tabs like the Identity Alert menu. There’s also a link to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store to download the PrivacyGuard mobile apps.

To take advantage of the full power of the product, you’ll have to enter information into multiple monitoring areas. Thankfully, the dashboard is intelligent and lets you know what information you’ve input and which sections you still need to fill out. 

There are red dots indicating information PrivacyGuard is monitoring and yellow caution signs where you still need to input your info.

Navigation to each section was easy. We could quickly view the monitoring information for each section, like our birthday below. Since we didn’t enter our driver’s license or passport number, that was still blank.

One feature that didn’t work for us was the Registered Offender Locator. We disabled our ad and cookie blockers, cleared our cache, and made sure cookies were enabled, but this page still wouldn’t load. We aren’t quite sure why, but we couldn’t make it work.

Also, we don’t love a product that makes us enable cookies and disable ad blockers to use it. Since the other services work without this hassle, we aren’t sure why cookies needed to be enabled for the Registered Offender Locator to work. 

According to its privacy policy, PrivacyGuard is collecting and sharing our data with third parties, so requiring us to disable blockers is especially annoying. 

Overall, we can see why someone would want to use PrivacyGuard. It has a clean dashboard that provides a lot of information. When we went to cancel our trial, we were able to do that from our account page and without much incident. 

If you’re concerned about your credit and identity safety, this may be a great service for you.

Who is PrivacyGuard best for?

• For any individual or single parent looking for customizable protection without needing to cover multiple adults.

PrivacyGuard's best plan is also its most expensive, which means that the monthly cost could quickly add up for families with multiple adults. But if you only need to protect your own information, then PrivacyGuard is a solid option. 

We do like that PrivacyGuard is split into plans exclusive to identity monitoring, plans exclusive to credit protection, and a plan that includes everything. You may already be receiving credit monitoring from Credit Karma or identity theft protection from Identity Guard, so you can purchase a PrivacyGuard plan just to fill any gaps. 

PrivacyGuard prices and subscriptions

There are three plans offered by PrivacyGuard ranging from $9.99–$24.99/mo. The Identity Protection plan is focused on identity monitoring features, the Credit Protection plan is focused on credit monitoring features, and Total Protection combines the two.

Total Protection is the most expensive plan, but it offers the most coverage. In addition to all the features offered in the Identity and Credit Protection plans, it also includes extras like emergency travel assistance and medical record reimbursement.

If the Total Protection price tag has you doing a double take, there's the more affordable Identity Protection plan for just $9.99/mo. While you won’t get the credit monitoring services offered through the credit plan, you'll still have monitoring for your SSN and financial accounts. 

Plan	PrivacyGuard Identity Protection	PrivacyGuard Credit Protection	PrivacyGuard Total Protection
Price per month	$9.99/mo	$19.99/mo	$24.99/mo
Who’s covered	1 adult	1 adult	1 adult, 10 children
Identity theft insurance	Up to $1 million		Up to $1 million
Identity recovery
Credit monitoring
Financial activity alerts
Credit reports		Yes — Experian, TransUnion, Equifax	Yes — Experian, TransUnion, Equifax
Credit score
Dark web alerts
SSN monitoring
USPS address change alerts
Learn more	View plan	View plan	View plan

PrivacyGuard is on the higher end of identity theft protection, but it also doesn't have any monthly plans to save you money in the long term. Here's how its starting price compares to top identity theft protection services:

• PrivacyGuard Individual: Starts at $9.99/mo
• Identity Guard Individual: Starts at $7.50/mo
• Aura Individual: $9.00/mo
• LifeLock Individual: Starts at $7.50/mo

Features

Most of PrivacyGuard's features are standard for identity protection services, but there were a few extras we appreciated.

Since schools are such a hot target for ransomware criminals, we now have to worry about children's SSNs being compromised before they turn 18. The addition of monitoring kids’ credit on the Total Protection plan is a nice feature. 

We were also impressed with the neighborhood reports that give you information on just about any neighborhood in the U.S. — and the Registered Offender Locator that can alert you if a registered offender moves into your neighborhood.

Identity monitoring

For the sake of covering all protections provided, we’re going to list the situations PrivacyGuard protects against on the Total Protection plan. While the Identity and Credit Protection plans can be purchased separately, the Total Protection plan has all features from both plans, plus additional features that come only with Total Protection. 

PrivacyGuard's monitoring areas include:

• Credit score tracking and monitoring
• Public and dark web scanning
• SSN monitoring
• Driver’s license and passport monitoring
• Bank account monitoring
• ID, application, and public records monitoring
• Neighborhood reports
• Registered Offender Locator

Credit monitoring

PrivacyGuard uses the VantageScore reported by Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion and provides you with daily credit monitoring and a monthly credit score.

The bureau credit monitoring feature checks for changes to your credit report and alerts you if it spots any. If you receive an alert for changes you didn’t make, PrivacyGuard helps you assess and remediate these changes with its identity theft protection services. This feature includes $1 million in ID theft insurance as well as online fraud assistance.

Alerts you’ll receive with credit monitoring include but are not limited to:

• New inquiries
• Derogatory information like a past-due bill
• New accounts opened
• Public records added to your credit file
• Change of address

Credit reports and credit scores

PrivacyGuard sends monthly credit score reports so you can monitor for inaccuracies or potential identity theft. The service also wants to help you understand your credit score, what it means, and how it can affect things like buying a new car or renting an apartment.

Landlords and lenders are likely to look at your credit score. You can monitor your VantageScore through PrivacyGuard. Your VantageScore is determined by the three major credit bureaus. The higher the score, the more likely you are to secure a loan with a good interest rate or get approved for an apartment.

Alerts

While you can monitor your credit and identity with other services, one of the benefits of having PrivacyGuard is the way it alerts you. There’s an app where you can check your credit and ID reports whenever you want. 

Also, PrivacyGuard will send you text and email alerts as well as a monthly credit report. This helps you catch concerning actions quickly and minimize identity theft losses. 

Additional alerts include:

• Registered offenders list
• Neighborhood reports
• Annual public records reports
• Online fraud alerts
• Credit reports
• Monthly status updates regarding your credit and identity

Does PrivacyGuard keep your data safe?

In very plain writing, PrivacyGuard lets you know that data collection is automatic, which means you don’t have the option to opt-out. You can send an email to service@tenerity.com with a request to stop the marketing communications, but we wish you could actually opt out of the data collection.

The policy notes that PrivacyGuard collects the following information:

• Log data: Includes IP address, operating system, browser type, browser ID, the URL entered and the referring page/campaign, date/time of visit, and the time spent on its services
• Analytics data: Includes the electronic path taken to PrivacyGuard, through the service and when exiting the service, as well as usage and activity on its services, such as the links, objects, products and benefits viewed, clicked or otherwise interacted with
• Location data: Includes general geographic location based on the Log Data collected or more precise location when permitted by law
• Application data: Includes more precise location data as well as use of and interactions with third-party sites and online services 

Compatibility

According to the website, you receive the PrivacyGuard app with any of the plans. The website shows the app is available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. 

The app has a 4.8-star rating for iOS and a 4.8-star rating for Android, among the highest ratings we've seen for an identity theft protection app. 

Customer support

PrivacyGuard comes with comprehensive customer support. While the Contact Us page is tucked quietly into the footer of the website, there are several methods of contact once you get there. We appreciated that you can call, email, or even send PrivacyGuard a letter.

But if you click on the FAQs, you’ll find limited information focused on membership questions and technical questions. While this isn’t as expansive of a self-help section as we see with other security products, it does tend to lend itself to calling the customer service phone number if you really need assistance. We like that focus on personal assistance rather than leaving us to fend for ourselves in forums or identity theft prevention guides.

Top alternatives

PrivacyGuard might not be your thing. Whether you want family protection or monitoring that PrivacyGuard lacks, you have other options for credit monitoring and identity theft protection. Below are some of our favorites. 

PrivacyGuard FAQs

Bottom line: Is PrivacyGuard good?

PrivacyGuard is good at what it does, but we think it's too expensive for most interested individuals. The dashboard is user-friendly; all of your information is presented on the screen, and you can continue to add more information to make sure no aspect of your credit or identity is compromised. We hope the service introduces annual pricing and family plans in the future. 

PrivacyGuard is one of many identity theft protection services that offer both preventative and remediation services. Most people don't think about this type of service as being necessary, but if you've ever lost your wallet or had your bank account hacked, you know how frustrating and time-consuming it can be to fix it.

Protecting your identity shouldn't be complicated. Identity theft services are a secure way to give you peace of mind. Make sure you're protected before it's too late.

atus updates regarding your credit and identity

Does PrivacyGuard keep your data safe?

In very plain writing, PrivacyGuard lets you know that data collection is automatic, which means you don’t have the option to opt-out. You can send an email to service@tenerity.com with a request to stop the marketing communications, but we wish you could actually opt out of the data collection.

The policy notes that PrivacyGuard collects the following information:

• Log data: Includes IP address, operating system, browser type, browser ID, the URL entered and the referring page/campaign, date/time of visit, and the time spent on its services
• Analytics data: Includes the electronic path taken to PrivacyGuard, through the service and when exiting the service, as well as usage and activity on its services, such as the links, objects, products and benefits viewed, clicked or otherwise interacted with
• Location data: Includes general geographic location based on the Log Data collected or more precise location when permitted by law
• Application data: Includes more precise location data as well as use of and interactions with third-party sites and online services 

Compatibility

According to the website, you receive the PrivacyGuard app with any of the plans. The website shows the app is available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. 

The app has a 4.8-star rating for iOS and a 4.8-star rating for Android, among the highest ratings we've seen for an identity theft protection app. 

Customer support

PrivacyGuard comes with comprehensive customer support. While the Contact Us page is tucked quietly into the footer of the website, there are several methods of contact once you get there. We appreciated that you can call, email, or even send PrivacyGuard a letter.

But if you click on the FAQs, you’ll find limited information focused on membership questions and technical questions. While this isn’t as expansive of a self-help section as we see with other security products, it does tend to lend itself to calling the customer service phone number if you really need assistance. We like that focus on personal assistance rather than leaving us to fend for ourselves in forums or identity theft prevention guides.

Top alternatives

PrivacyGuard might not be your thing. Whether you want family protection or monitoring that PrivacyGuard lacks, you have other options for credit monitoring and identity theft protection. Below are some of our favorites. 

PrivacyGuard FAQs

Bottom line: Is PrivacyGuard good?

PrivacyGuard is good at what it does, but we think it's too expensive for most interested individuals. The dashboard is user-friendly; all of your information is presented on the screen, and you can continue to add more information to make sure no aspect of your credit or identity is compromised. We hope the service introduces annual pricing and family plans in the future. 

PrivacyGuard is one of many identity theft protection services that offer both preventative and remediation services. Most people don't think about this type of service as being necessary, but if you've ever lost your wallet or had your bank account hacked, you know how frustrating and time-consuming it can be to fix it.

Protecting your identity shouldn't be complicated. Identity theft services are a secure way to give you peace of mind. Make sure you're protected before it's too late.

e you're protected before it's too late.