Texas sues Allstate for using customer data to build ‘world’s largest driving behavior database’

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Sue Allstate Insurance Company For allegedly illegally collecting, using and selling the driving behavior data of more than 45 million Americans.

Paxton filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Montgomery County, Texas, on Monday morning. In the lawsuit, Allstate and its data analysis company, Arity, are accused of secretly using driving data from more than 45 million American mobile devices, in-car devices and vehicles to build “the world’s largest database of driving behavior,” consisting of “trillions of miles.” Data value.

“Our investigation revealed that Allstate and Arity paid millions of dollars to install Allstate’s tracking software,” Paxton said in a statement Monday. “Millions of Americans’ personal data 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 United States and is headquartered in Glenview, Illinois.

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Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton

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In 2015, Allstate and Arity developed and integrated software into various third-party applications so that when a consumer downloaded those applications to their phone, they inadvertently downloaded the application, the lawsuit said. Tracking software. Once Allstate’s software is downloaded onto a customer’s device, they can monitor the consumer’s location and movement in real time.

According to the lawsuit, the company used driving data to justify increasing the number of customers Insurance rates It also profited from selling data to third parties, including other insurance companies.

“Defendants (Allstate and Arity) never informed consumers of their extensive data collection, and Defendants did not obtain consumers’ consent to engage in such data collection,” the lawsuit states. “Finally, Defendants never informed consumers of the myriad ways in which Defendants could analyze, use and monetize their sensitive data.”

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Because tens of millions of Americans, including millions of Texans, are never informed that their driving data is being collected, Paxton argues that Allstate’s data collection system violates the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, the Data Broker Act, and the prohibition imposed by the Insurance in Texas. Concerning unfair and deceptive acts and practices in the insurance business.

It is asking the court to permanently bar Allstate from continuing to collect and use customer data and to impose civil penalties of thousands of dollars on each customer.

According to Paxton, this lawsuit is the first enforcement action brought by a state attorney general to enforce a sweeping resolution Data privacy law.

Fox News Digital reached out to Allstate but did not immediately receive a response.



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