Identity Finder Premium Review

Do you know how many personal information you have stored on your computer? And where? Most PCs are filled with documents and emails that may contain information like credit card numbers, social security IDs, passwords, email addresses or scanned certificates that are all there in plain sight and accessible by anyone looking for them.

The core problem besides the fact that the information are stored without protection is that most users have them scattered around on the computer's hard drive. Places to look first are the documents folder and email clients, but there are other locations where information may be stored.

Identity Finder has been designed to prevent identity theft by scanning a computer for personal information. The findings are then displayed in the program interface to alarm the user of their presence, and tools are offered to deal with the information.

You can start a basic scan right away, use the search wizard to customize the search or load the advanced interface which enables the program's full feature set. Identity Finder can locate credit card numbers, passwords, bank account numbers, email addresses, phone numbers and a variety of other information during searches. One of the program's strength is the ability to create custom keyword searchers for information (like a name for instance).

Identities for additional countries (Australia, Canada and United Kingdom) can be included in the search as well. The standard scan processes all files in My Documents, email mailboxes and web browsers locations. Advanced users can add the Registry to that and custom locations that they want included in the search.

The time it takes to finish an identity search on the computer depends largely on the selected locations, parameters of the search and the computer's performance. Scans not only look at file names but also inside documents to find personal information. Advanced search options are listed in the settings. Here it is for instance possible to include mapped network drives and shadow files in the scan, or to ignore certain file types that you do not want included.

When it comes to email, Identity Finder will search Outlook, Exchange and Thunderbird mailboxes automatically. You can enable additional programs (Outlook Express and Windows Mail), files (Outlook PST files) and mailbox files in the program settings.

You can also locate exact identity information during scans. Identity Finder can be configured to scan for specific credit cards, bank account numbers or other values of importance.

Search results are displayed in list form afterwards. A results wizard can be used to walk through each result individually. Actions depend on the location and type of information. Identity Finder can suggested to securely delete information (for instance emails) or to secure the file type (for instance a Microsoft Office document) to protect the information from third parties. Securing items usually means adding password protection to prevent unauthorized access to the files.

Secured files are kept in their original location. An alternative is the quarantine option to secure and move the file to another location and shred the original file in the original location, and the scrub option to remove the information from the selected file.

Identity Finder ships with a set of security tools that further enhance the program. Tools available include a password vault to store passwords securely in the program, a file vault to store files securely, a file shredder to delete files permanently from the computer or a browser security module which for instance reminds Firefox users to set a master passwords if they have passwords saved in the browser.

Scheduling and logging options are available as well. Scans can be scheduled to run regularly using the built-in task scheduler. Professional users can make use of the program's logging and report generation features.

Feature Overview

• Find Credit Card Numbers and Passwords, SSNs, Bank Accounts, DOBs, Phone #s, Driver Licenses, Personal Addresses, Canadian SINs, Australian TFNs, UK NINO and NHS #s, and more
• Create custom searches using keywords or regular expressions
• Search browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer (Windows Only), files within the My Documents Folder, on local or removable drives, shadow volumes, previous file versions, emails and attachments, and the Registry
• Supports both common document file types such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, text, html, rtf, compressed files and all other file types
• Options to securely delete or password protect files, scrub information and to quarantine files are available
• Identity Finder integrates with Windows Explorer
• Results can be saved, printed or export as web page or CSV files

Verdict

Identity Finder Premium is an all-in-one program to find and secure personal information on a computer system. The ability to create custom search parameters, logging and reporting, along with multiple options to handle information that are found on the computer leave little to desire.

Interested users can download the free - limited - version of the program from the company website.

Giveaway

We have 14 Identity Finder Premium licenses for the giveaway. Leave a comment below to be included in the draw. Let us know what you would use the program for.

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