Personalized Identity Protection

As Senior Director of Product UX & Design, I set out to evolve our basic identity protection into actionable guidance. Research showed that 67% of consumers didn’t know what to do after a data exposure and felt overwhelmed by generic alerts. We built a personalized protection engine—powered by a breach database covering every publicly reported U.S. breach and protected by multiple patents—to recommend the next best action and prevent future fraud (roughly 8× broader than typical dark‑web sources).

Snapshot (Challenge • Role • Audience • Constraints)​

Challenge

Consumers were overwhelmed by generic alerts and unsure what to do after a data exposure; research showed 67% didn’t know which actions to take or where to start. The existing “detect and notify” model needed to evolve into clear, personalized guidance that reduces risk and builds protective habits.
 

My Role

Led the vision, consumer research, testing and end‑to‑end design for a personalized identity protection experience—defining the principles, partnering with the founder of the solution, product, engineering, data, and shaping the UI/UX that turns exposure signals into next‑best‑action recommendations (including the Identity Safety Score for effort/impact).
 

Audience

Consumers in bank/fintech partner channels (B2B2C) and direct‑to‑consumer contexts who receive identity alerts and need step‑by‑step, confidence‑building actions to prevent fraud and identity theft.
 

Constraints

Highly regulated domain (privacy, consent, explainability)

Integration into varied partner journeys (B2B2C) with different capabilities/brands

Need for clarity + brevity in high‑anxiety moments (data breach notifications)

System performance at scale using a breach database that aggregates all publicly reported U.S. breaches (protected by multiple patents; ~8× the breadth of typical dark‑web sources)

Legacy architecture that was acquired from acquisition

  • Personalized Identity Protection
  • Personalized Identity Protection
  • Personalized Identity Protection
  • Personalized Identity Protection

Outcomes (Highlights)

Customer (People & Experience)

From alerts to actions. Reframed identity protection as personalized next steps rather than static alerts—reducing uncertainty and giving users a clear “what to do now.”

Habit formation. Introduced an Identity Safety Score with effort + impact to motivate continual protection behaviors (quick wins first, higher‑impact actions over time).

Confidence & control. Plain‑language guidance and progressive disclosure improved comprehension in stressful moments.

 

Partner / Business (B2B2C Value)

Partner‑ready adoption. Designed to embed within bank/fintech journeys—meeting partner brand needs while preserving UX clarity and compliance.

Market resonance. Addresses real partner concerns: a majority of consumers worry banks aren’t doing enough to protect PII; a significant share would consider bundled identity protection with checking—creating new attach opportunities.

Enable financial institutions to lower fraud‑related restoration costs by helping consumers take proactive, informed steps to protect themselves. When consumers prevent identity theft before it happens, they become significantly lower‑risk to account‑takeover and other costly criminal activity.

 

Organization (System & Scale)

Data advantage. Recommendations powered by a breach database covering every publicly reported U.S. breach (multi‑patent protection), roughly 8× broader than typical dark‑web sources—enabling more relevant guidance.

Reusable patterns. Established content, decision, and UI patterns (recommendation cards, effort/impact cues, progress scaffolds) that can be leveraged across other risk and protection experiences.

B2B2C pathway. Clear packaging for indirect channels (FIs/fintechs), aligning GTM with a partner‑embeddable model.

Finovate Demo

Our research revealed a clear market gap: most consumers don’t feel their banks do enough to protect their personal information, and many banks rely on dark‑web monitoring that only detects fraud rather than helping consumers prevent it. With 37% of bank customers open to bundling identity protection with a checking account, we saw a major opportunity to deliver a partner‑ready, prevention‑focused solution.

Below is the demo we presented at Finovate Spring 2024, showcasing how this experience comes to life.