Sony's PSN Identity Protection Scheme
Plastic glasses and a comedy nose.
Sony Europe is working "incredibly hard" to offer all PlayStation Network users a free European identity protection scheme.
The incentive has already begun in the US, where it is known as AllClear ID Plus.
All US PlayStation Network and Qriocity members qualify for a year's free cover. Protection includes "cyber monitoring and surveillance" of your details; if they pop up on any "criminal" websites, you'll be notified.
If you are alerted to danger, the next step is "priority access to licences private investigators and identity retention specialists". They'll conduct "a comprehensive inquiry" on your behalf.
Finally, if you have been the victim of identity theft, AllClear ID has you covered up to $1 million. That figure will help pay "identity restoration costs", "legal defense experts" and "lost wages".
"As you will have read in the letter from Sir Howard Stringer, in the US we are offering all PSN users one year’s free access to an identity protection scheme. I can assure you that here in the SCEE [Sony Europe] region, we are working incredibly hard to offer you something very similar," wrote Sony Europe comms head Nick Caplin on the European PlayStation blog.
"As is often the case here, with so many countries in our region, this is a very complicated thing to achieve, but we are close."
