ExpressVPN, one of the best VPN services, has announced Identity Defender, a suite of identity alerting and protection features.Identity Defender consists of three products: identity alerting, identity theft insurance, and data deletion. The launch of Identity Defender adds a number of features to ExpressVPN and solves one of the major problems with the product.

Identity Alerts is an identity monitoring tool that alerts users to address changes, displays personal information on the dark web, and displays Social Security numbers online; Identity Theft Insurance provides up to $1 million in coverage for identity theft and includes assistance in recovering stolen accounts; and Data Deletion is an identity theft insurance policy that provides up to $1 million in protection against identity theft. Data Deletion scans personal information collected by data brokers and requests deletion.

“With Identity Defender, we aim to provide users with a one-stop solution that not only allows them to quickly determine if their information is at risk, but also guides them through effective steps to address any issues.”

says Lauren Hendry Parsons, Digital Privacy Advocate for ExpressVPN.

At this stage, the new features are limited to new U.S. users only, and will be rolled out to all U.S.-based users over time. Currently, only Android and iOS platforms support the new features, but ExpressVPN says more platforms will be available soon.

All three features are included free with the 2-year plan. However, for the other plans, identity theft and data deletion are optional add-ons; see the table below for Identity Defender's pricing structure.

ExpressVPN was once our top VPN recommendation, but recent ExpressVPN reviews have been critical of the company for falling behind its competitors when it comes to all-around packages. In fact, rivals like NordVPN and Surfshark are cheaper and offer more. However, this announcement shows that ExpressVPN is not resting on its laurels and is taking the fight to its rivals in the market. [Aaron Engel, Express VPN's Chief Information Security Officer, said, “ExpressVPN's mission is to provide our customers with the highest level of digital protection possible. [and] “We are committed to providing our customers with the highest level of digital protection possible,” said Aaron Engel, Express VPN's Chief Information Security Officer. This is a welcome response from ExpressVPN, as there are many services that offer identity theft protection, including some VPN providers.

The addition from ExpressVPN brings its service closer to the higher level subscriptions of its market rivals; Threat Protection Pro is included in NordVPN's top plans, and the Prime plan includes cyber insurance. It offers up to $1 million in identity theft recovery and $100,000 in cyber extortion protection.NordVPN's Prime plan is currently available for $7.89 per month for two years and three months free. This makes ExpressVPN's 2-year package for $5.32/month, which includes 3 additional months and the identity defender feature, an excellent price.

Surfshark, the best budget VPN, includes Incogni, a data removal service, in its plans. Incogni scans your personal data over the Internet and submits removal requests to data brokers. Incogni monitors your information and continue and resubmit the request if requested.