Texas sues Allstate for using customer data to build ‘world’s largest database of driving behavior’
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is being sued Allstate Insurance Company for allegedly illegally collecting, using and selling data on the driving behavior of more than 45 million Americans.
Paxton filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Montgomery County, Texas, on Monday morning. The lawsuit accuses Allstate and its data analytics subsidiary Arity of secretly using driving data from more than 45 million U.S. mobile devices, in-car devices and vehicles to build “the world’s largest database of driving behavior,” consisting of “trillions of miles” worth of data.
“Our investigation revealed that Allstate and Arity paid millions of dollars to install Allstate’s tracking software,” Paxton said in a statement Monday. “The personal information of millions of Americans was sold to insurance companies without their knowledge or consent, in violation of the law. Texans deserve better and we will hold all of these companies accountable.”
Allstate is one of the largest auto, home and life insurance companies in the US. It is headquartered in Glenview, Illinois.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during a rally attended by former President Trump on Oct. 22, 2022, in Robstown, Texas. (AP Photo/Nick Wagner, File)
The lawsuit said that in 2015, Allstate and Arity developed and integrated software into several third-party apps so that when a user downloads those apps to their phone, they unwittingly download tracking software. Once Allstate’s software was downloaded to the customer’s device, they were able to track the location and movement of the customer in real time.
According to the lawsuit, the company used the driving data to justify increasing the number of customers. insurance rates and additionally profited by selling data to third parties, including other insurance companies.
“The defendants [Allstate and Arity] never notified consumers of their extensive data collection, nor did defendants obtain consumer consent to engage in such data collection,” the lawsuit states. “Finally, defendants never informed consumers of the myriad ways in which defendants would analyze, use, and monetize your sensitive data.”
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Tom Wilson, chairman and chief executive officer of Allstate Corp., listens during the CEO Initiative event in New York on September 25, 2017. (Misha Friedman/Bloomberg)
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Because tens of millions of Americans, including millions of Texans, were never notified of the collection of their driving data, Paxton claims that Allstate’s data collection scheme violates the Texas Privacy and Data Security Act, the Data Broker Act and the Texas Insurance Code’s prohibition on unfair and fraudulent practices. actions and practices in insurance business.
He is asking the court to permanently block Allstate from continuing to collect and use customer data and to impose thousands of dollars in civil penalties per customer.
According to Paxton, this lawsuit is the first enforcement action ever brought by an attorney general to enforce a comprehensive data privacy law.
Fox News Digital reached out to Allstate but did not immediately hear back.
