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Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton is suing Allstate Insurance Company for allegedly illegally collecting, using and selling driving behavior data on more than 45 million Americans.
Paxton filed the lawsuit in Montgomery County, Texas district court on Monday morning. In the lawsuit, it accuses Allstate, and its data analytics subsidiary Arity, of secretly using driving data from more than 45 million American mobile devices, devices and car vehicles to create “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 data 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 these companies accountable.”
Allstate is one of the largest auto, home and life insurance companies in the US. It is based in Glenview, Illinois.
Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during a rally with former President Donald 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 various third-party apps so that when a consumer downloaded those apps to their phone, they were unwittingly downloading them. tracking software. Once Allstate’s software was downloaded to a customer’s device, they could monitor the consumer’s location and movement in real time.
According to the lawsuit, the company used the driving data to justify the increase in customers. insurance rates and further profited by selling the data to third parties, including other insurance companies.
“Defendants (Allstate and Arity) never informed consumers of their extensive data collection, nor did defendants obtain consumer consent to engage in such data collection,” the lawsuit said. “Finally, Defendants never informed consumers about the myriad ways in which Defendants would analyze, use, and monetize their sensitive data.”
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Tom Wilson, chairman and CEO of Allstate Corp., listens during the CEO Initiative event in New York, U.S., Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. The CEO Initiative brings together CEOs from some of the most il· luminaries from around the world to exchange best practices and leadership techniques, develop actionable solutions and track tangible progress. (Misha Friedman/Bloomberg)
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Because tens of millions of Americans, including millions of Texans, were never told about their driving data, Paxton argues that Allstate’s data collection scheme violates the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act , the Data Broker Act, and the Texas Insurance Code prohibition. on unfair and deceptive acts and practices in the insurance business.
It 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 a state attorney general to enforce a data privacy law.
Fox News Digital reached out to Allstate, but did not immediately hear back.
