ExpressVPN is one of the most well-known VPNs on the market, and for good reason. It excelled in our most recent round of extensive testing in areas from streaming to security, making it genuinely one of the best VPNs money can buy.
In fact, ExpressVPN is so impressive that it's a mainstay in all of our top VPN rankings – and has been for some time. While it may not have as many features as some of its rivals (most notably Surfshark and NordVPN), it's been steadily working on releasing more.
Its latest flagship feature, Identity Defender, is today's topic, so join me below as I dig into what it is and why it can help keep you (and your data) safe online.
What is ExpressVPN's Identity Defender?
Ensuring privacy and anonymity for users are a VPN's bread and butter, and ExpressVPN does this very well. As one of the most secure VPNs across our reviews, it's long been known as a privacy purist's VPN of choice.
However, online threats continuously evolve, and Identity Defender is ExpressVPN's way of improving users' data privacy even further by combining four different products:
- ID Alerts
- ID Theft Insurance
- Data Removal
- Credit Scanner
ID Alerts is a feature that monitors data in key areas of the internet to let you know if there's any activity that puts you at higher risk for identity theft, such as dark web monitoring, social security number monitoring, and change of address monitoring.
ID Theft Insurance reimburses you for any expenses incurred while reclaiming your identity if it gets stolen, with coverage of up to $1 million.
Data Removal, as the name implies, is a feature that monitors and removes your personal information to ensure it has actually been removed from any unwanted places online.
Credit Scanner helps you keep track of your credit score and activity by showing your credit score at a glance, a monthly overview of your credit score, monitoring any activities that could affect your credit, as well as offer recommendations for improving it. Additionally, it allows you to quickly find the information you need to freeze your credit, should this activity be necessary.
Therefore, ExpressVPN's Identity Defender ensures all of these products work together to remove your personal data from the internet. In doing so, it minimizes the likelihood of you being the victim of spam and scam campaigns, as well as identity theft.
However, please note that some or all of these features will only be available for free depending on what level of ExpressVPN subscription you select (for instance, the monthly credit score overview feature is only available with a two-year subscription).
How do I get ExpressVPN's Identity Defender?
In order to get all of the features mentioned above, you will need to sign-up for a two-year subscription to ExpressVPN. However, please keep in mind that, at the time of writing, ExpressVPN is rolling out all Identity Defender services gradually – and the first to have access will be new US users.
This means that, if you're already an ExpressVPN user, or you're in another country, your best bet may be to wait until Identity Defender is available everywhere.
In the meantime, you may also want to consider going for a different VPN that also incorporates cybersecurity tools. If that's the case, we recommend either NordVPN or Surfshark to stay safe until Identity Defender is ready for you.
