AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing insurance company Allstate and its subsidiary Arity, alleging the company secretly collected Texans’ cellphone data and used it to justify raising customers’ car insurance rates.
Paxton on Tuesday said the company and other insurers collected data through “secretly embedded software” on apps like Life360, a family safety app that tracks users’ locations and driving habits. He said Allstate never provided notice or got consent from customers to collect or sell their sensitive data.
The attorney general said this violates the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, which offers protections to Texans concerning their personal data, including protecting their geolocation information.
According to the act, Texans have the right to know whether a company is using or selling their personal data.
“Our investigation revealed that Allstate and Arity paid mobile apps millions of dollars to install Allstate’s tracking software,” Paxton said. “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.”
Arity is a mobility data and analytics company. Life360, which uses Arity technology, states on its website that insights collected from driver data through Arity never include “personally identifiable information.” Arity sells these insights to insurance companies and other organizations “that want to better understand transportation-related trends such as dangerous intersections or road segments.”
Allstate has not released a statement regarding the lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes after Paxton sued General Motors in August over collecting Texans’ driver data and alleged it sold it to insurance companies without customers’ consent.
