Texas suing Allstate for using customer data to build ‘world’s largest driving behavior database’

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Allstate insurance company, accusing them of illegally collecting, using, and selling the driving behavior data of over 45 million Americans. The suit, filed in the District Court for Montgomery County, Texas, alleges that Allstate and its subsidiary data analytics company, Arity, secretly gathered driving data from millions of Americans’ mobile devices, in-car devices, and vehicles to create the “world’s largest driving behavior database.”

According to Paxton, Allstate and Arity paid millions of dollars to install tracking software on consumers’ devices without their knowledge or consent. This software allowed the companies to monitor consumers’ location and movement in real time. The suit claims that Allstate used this data to justify raising customers’ insurance rates and also profited by selling the data to third parties, including other insurance companies.

The lawsuit alleges that Allstate never informed consumers about the extensive data collection, nor did they obtain consent to engage in such practices. Paxton argues that this data-gathering scheme violates the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, the Data Broker Law, and the Texas Insurance Code’s prohibition on unfair and deceptive acts in the insurance business.

Paxton is seeking to permanently block Allstate from continuing to gather and use customers’ data and to impose civil penalties per customer. This enforcement action is the first of its kind filed by a state attorney general to enforce a comprehensive data privacy law.

Fox News Digital reached out to Allstate for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Stay tuned for updates on this developing story.