
Class action lawsuit filed against Allstate for allegedly collecting and selling data without consumer consent
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A class action lawsuit against Allstate for allegedly collecting and selling data, including geolocation data without the consumer’s consent has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division.
The suit states Allstate and Arity, an Allstate company, conspired to secretly collect and sell “trillions of miles” of consumer “driving behavior” data from mobile devices, in-car devices and vehicles.
It alleges that Allstate used the data to build a database that houses the driving behavior of more than 45 million Americans. The suit claims Allstate created the business to support its business and to profit from selling the driver behavior data to third parties.
“Millions of Americans, including plaintiff and class members, were never informed about, nor consented to defendants’ continuous collection and sale of their data,” the suit says.
Data collected included geolocation data, accelerometer data, magnetometer data and gyroscopic data.
This suit claims the defendants paid app developers millions to integrate software into their apps. It also says Allstate gave incentives to developers to increase the size of their database. It says apps have been paid to use Arity SDK since at least 2017.
Apps that integrated Arity SDK include Routely, Life360, GasBuddy and Fuel Rewards, according to the lawsuit.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced last week that he also had filed suit against Allstate and Arity for the collection and selling of data.
The insurance company’s actions violate the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA), the release says. The law requires clear notice and informed consent regarding how a company will use Texans’ consent to collect or sell their sensitive data, according to the release.
“Our investigation revealed that Allstate and Arity paid mobile apps millions of dollars to install Allstate’s tracking software,” said Paxton in the release. “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.”
Last Month, Paxton sent a notice of violation to Arity claiming it fails to clearly inform consumers about the data it collects and how it is sold.
Allstate Insurance has participated in past roundtables with federal and state officials to discuss the importance of the “right to repair” and joined the call for federal legislation. Allstate is also a listed member of the CAR Coalition.
According to their website “The CAR Coalition believes consumers deserve the right to control who has access to their vehicle-generated data and when.”
In August, Paxton filed suit against General Motors and subsidiary OnStar for “false, deceptive, and misleading” business practices related to the alleged collection and sale of more than 1.8 million Texans’ private driving data to insurance companies.
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