LimeLock for Internet Users

Overview

For many people Internet is the #1 source for all their information needs. News, weather reports, entertainment, professional issues, etc, became easily accessible, as search technologies progressed together with improved quality of content. For many Internet is also a link to the offline world of products and services through various extensive advertising channels.

One of the popular forms of Internet advertising for marketers is web sites offering multiple quotes. Those sites are often called "lead sites" or "lead generating sites", since in reality they generate sales leads that in turn are delivered to the lead buyers. These lead buyers then solicit the consumer by phone or e-mail with their business offers. Such online services are prevalent in the mortgage, real estate, contracting, moving & storage, car dealership, debt consolidation, collection services, and other industries.

LimeLock™ stands between the consumer and the marketer to prevent any misuse, abuse, or unauthorized use of consumer's contact information (e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc).

How a typical lead generation web site works

A typical lead generation web site collects consumer's information through specialized forms on their pages. This information will usually consist of (1) personal data specific to the service in question, and (2) personal contact data, such as name, e-mail address, phone(s), etc.

After the form is submitted this information is processed, organized, and distributed to marketers who satisfy all the criteria of the request. Usually there is a limit to how many marketers will receive each lead, usually being in a range of 3 to 10. Consumers are often notified that it will take some time until they start receiving quotes from marketers (usually within 24 hours). When this process works well, quotes would start arriving as e-mails and phone calls, and consumers in fact receive what they asked for.

What dangers unprotected web sites pose to your privacy

Needless to say things often do not work as intended. An avalanche of e-mails, often spammy in their nature, and multiple phone calls at the most inconvenient time would make many consumers question the value of the online service they just trusted. They will unfortunately discover soon after that this misuse of information is irreversible, since once their contact information is submitted and forwarded to the marketers the lead service has no way to pull it back! Adding to the frustration, those leads are often "illegally" resold to other less credible marketers, or even worse - spammers and telemarketers.

Many consumers, aware of those dangers, resolve to using temporary e-mail addresses for "spam", which are specifically opened for that purpose and abandoned once the service is no longer needed. Although this solution provides protection for the real e-mail address, it is inconvenient since it requires managing many e-mail accounts. Also, this method is often ineffective since spam finds its way in really fast making legitimate communications lost among all the marketing garbage.

Others would seek communication by e-mail only, but forced to fill in their phone number use instead a fake one. This solution protects the real phone number, but those leads are often invalidated before even reaching the marketers. When fake numbers do reach the marketer, they are often discarded as fake leads. It makes this solution completely pointless.

How does LimeLock™ technology work?

The concept behind our patent pending technology is in fact very simple: when a user submits LimeLock™-protected form we replace their real e-mails addresses and phone numbers with anonymized versions (called aliases). For example, an aliased e-mail will look like xxxxxx@anon.limelock.com, and for phones it is a completely new number that is assigned for at least 60 days.

Users' real e-mails and phone numbers are stored securely on our servers together with the corresponding aliases. Users get access to their individual LimeLock™ accounts any time they want to control their aliases. These accounts will also allow users to monitor the e-mail and phone traffic. Aliases can be cancelled, transferred to voice mail, restricted to specific periods of the day, etc. etc.

Here is a list of most convenient consumer benefits of LimeLock™ technology for the consumers:

1. There is literally no sign up process - your LimeLock™ account is created automatically when you submit the form on any participating web site. The account access is easy using your e-mail as login name, and one of your phones as your initial password.
2. As long as you use the same e-mail address for all your online interactions with participating web sites, your new aliases will be created and stored in the same LimeLock™ account, and can be easily managed any time.
3. Finally, there isn't a set limit on the number of aliases a phone number or e-mail may have, so each time you anonymize your contact data you get an infinite stream of aliases.

Why it is safe to use web sites protected by LimeLock™

Participating web sites (a.k.a. "Protected by LimeLock™") represent some of the best web services on the Net. The fact that these sites took another step to protect their users is a sign of business responsibility and ethics.

When using the services of one of the participating web sites not only do you get all the tools you need to protect yourself - you also get another level of protection from the web service itself. Those web sites get their own set of tools from us which allow them, for example, to block unauthorized third parties from contacting you. They can also monitor their marketers to prevent them from sending too many e-mails or making too many calls.

Bottom line is - with LimeLock™ you no longer need to worry about using your real e-mail address and phone number.

For more questions about LimeLock™ please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.