On Monday morning, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Allstate insurance company in the District Court for Montgomery County, Texas. The lawsuit alleges that Allstate, along with its subsidiary data analytics company 'Arity,' illegally collected, used, and sold driving behavior data from over 45 million Americans.
Paxton claims that Allstate and Arity secretly gathered driving data from mobile devices, in-car devices, and vehicles to create what he calls the 'world’s largest driving behavior database,' containing 'trillions of miles' worth of data.
According to Paxton, Allstate paid millions to install tracking software on consumers' devices without their knowledge or consent. This data was then used to monitor consumers' location and movement in real time. The lawsuit further alleges that Allstate used this data to justify raising insurance rates and sold it to third parties, including other insurance companies.
The suit states that consumers were never informed about the extensive data collection, nor did they provide consent for it. Paxton argues that this data-gathering scheme violates Texas laws, including the Data Privacy and Security Act, the Data Broker Law, and the Texas Insurance Code's prohibition on unfair and deceptive practices.
Paxton is seeking to permanently block Allstate from collecting and using customers' data and impose civil penalties per customer. This lawsuit marks the first enforcement action by a state attorney general to enforce a comprehensive data privacy law.
