Allstate Insurance Class Action Data Sharing Lawsuit

The data privacy attorneys at The Lyon Firm are investigating a recent class action lawsuit naming Allstate Insurance Co. as a defendant. The filed complaint alleges that the company violated the Federal Wiretap Act, as well as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, with their data collection practices.

Contact our class action lawyers to learn more about your legal options following any instance of data theft or personal data misuse. Joe Lyon believes strongly that any entity that collects and stores your personal information has a duty to protect it and not engage with any data brokers without your consent. We have represented clients in all fifty states in various data privacy litigation. Call for a free consultation and case review.

Understanding the Allstate Data Collection Lawsuit

Data misuse cases are much more common than many consumers know, and individuals have the right to take legal action when there is a clear invasion of privacy. Plaintiffs are arguing that Allstate violated their privacy rights by collecting their “driving behavior” data from mobile devices, in-car devices, and vehicles. The company allegedly continuously collected and sold the data of millions of customers.

Why does this matter to an individual consumer? Well, consider that it comes time when you as a consumer request a car insurance quote or you have to renew your coverage. If your insurance company already has access to your driving behavior in a database, your insurer can use that information against you to increase your car insurance premiums, or deny you coverage outright.

Lawyers are arguing that Allstate obtained a wide range of driving data to build the “world’s largest driving behavior database,” a dataset of the driving behavior of over 45 million Americans. Plaintiffs allege that Allstate may have created this giant database for two primary purposes: to bolster their car insurance business and to profit from selling the driving behavior data to third parties, including other insurance companies.

The Allstate Insurance class action comes shortly after the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, took legal action against Allstate and its subsidiary Arity LLC under the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act.

Allstate allegedly used embedded software in several mobile apps to collect data on consumers’ driving behavior without their knowledge or consent. Arity has apparently been “licensing” its data tracking software to app developers since at least 2017, Paxton claims. When an individual downloads one of the mobile apps in question (Routely, GasBuddy, Life360, Miles, MyRadar, SiriusXM and Tapestri), they also have “unwittingly downloaded” the Arity software, according to the complaint, which means the company can then monitor the consumer’s real-time location and movement.

The Arity software has the ability to collect a phone’s geolocation data, accelerometer data, magnetometer data and gyroscopic data, which tracks a phone’s altitude, longitude, latitude, bearing, GPS time and speed. The software also tracks hard braking, acceleration data, and if a user picked up or opened their phone while operating their vehicle.

After collecting the data from the mobile apps (GasBuddy, Life360, Miles, MyRadar, SiriusXM, Routely and Tapestri), Arity sent it to Allstate and sold it to other insurers, all of whom could potentially use it to raise individual premiums and inflate policy quotes to prospective new customers.

This case sheds light on how consumers’ data privacy can be violated when they sign up for mobile apps that share their data with third parties. Disclosures about data sharing are often vague about who data is shared with, and commonly included in dense privacy policies that consumers rarely take the time to read, let alone fully understand the implications. The complaint notes that Arity did not offer consumers a way to opt out of the data-sharing scheme.

Unfortunately, this is not the first instance of data misuse or illegal data sharing. A lawsuit filed against General Motors last year alleges that GM engaged in false, deceptive, and misleading business practices, including the unlawful collection of 1.8 million individuals driving data, which it then allegedly sold to insurers.