The State of Texas sued Allstate on Monday, accusing the insurer of illegally tracking drivers by way of their phones through a subsidiary called Arity that claimed to have the “world’s largest driving behavior database.”
“Allstate and Arity paid mobile apps millions of dollars to install Allstate’s tracking software,” Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, said in a statement. “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.”
In a statement, Allstate denied that the company had done anything illegal. “Arity helps consumers get the most accurate auto insurance price after they consent in a simple and transparent way that fully complies with all laws and regulations,” the company said.
The New York Times reported last year that information about people’s driving behavior was being collected via smartphone apps, such as Life360 and GasBuddy, and sold to Arity, an analytics company founded by Allstate. Arity was able to analyze the data collected from people’s smartphones to determine how often they sped, braked suddenly or were distracted by their phones while driving. It used that analysis to give them driving risk scores.
“Insurers then used that consumer’s data to justify increasing their car insurance premiums, denying them coverage, or dropping them from coverage,” according to the attorney general’s lawsuit, which accuses the companies of violating the state’s privacy laws.
According to the state lawsuit, filed in District Court of Montgomery County, Arity has the location, movement and driving data of more than 45 million Americans who “were never informed about, nor consented to,” the continuous collection and sale of their data.
Texas also sued General Motors last year over the collection of consumers’ driving data, following a report by The Times that G.M. and other automakers were selling information about people’s driving to the insurance industry.