Consumers Unaware Allstate Is Tracking Their Driving Behaviors

The Daily Signal ^ | January 17, 2025 | Hans von Spakovsky

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

In our modern age of camera-equipped cellphones and laptops, ubiquitous social media websites, and constant GPS tracking that everyone seems to use to go anywhere, you are not paranoid if you worry that Big Brother—the government—along with companies like Google and Facebook, are recording your every move. If the allegations made by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are true, you can add automobile insurance companies and a host of third-party app developers to that list.

That is according to a lawsuit filed by Paxton that brings up shades of George Orwell’s book “1984” and the constant surveillance of citizens he describes in the mythical country of Oceania. The lawsuit he filed in Texas state court is against Allstate Insurance and several of its subsidiaries. It claims that the insurer has violated the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act as well as other provisions of the Texas business and insurance code.

Paxton alleges that Allstate has secretly amassed a massive database of the detailed “driving behaviors” of 45 million Americans, which it is using for its own underwriting of automobile insurance and selling to other insurance carriers for the same purpose.

According to the complaint, Allstate “covertly collected much of their ‘trillions of miles’ of data by maintaining active connections with consumers’ mobile devices and harvesting the data directly from their phone.” It paid third-party app developers “millions of dollars” to secretly integrate Allstate’s tracking software into their apps so that when a “consumer downloaded the third-party app onto their phone, they also unwittingly downloaded” the 1984-esque software.

Allstate, says Paxton, “directly pulled a litany of valuable data directly from consumers’ mobile phones,” including “geolocation data, accelerometer data, magnetometer data, and gyroscopic data.”

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The practical problem is that Allstate tracks your location, even if you're a passenger in a car driven by your speed demon friend, thus risking a rise in your own rates.

[cgbg]

As a practical matter every cell phone is a spy with thousands of masters.

If you want privacy you are on the wrong planet.

[Dr. Sivana]

I have Allstate. I never downloaded the app. I also declined their tracking discount program, which many insurers now promote.

[PIF]

Excerpt:
Although they have not been named as defendants in the lawsuit, the third-party app developers listed in the complaint include Routely (which monitors your trips and tells you where you have been and how often you have been driving), Life360 (which shows you the location of friends and family members who join the app), and GasBuddy and Fuel Rewards (two apps that help you find the cheapest gas and offer price reductions at certain gas stations).

On top of this secret data collection from your apps, Allstate has more recently started “purchasing data about vehicles’ operations directly from car manufacturers,” including Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, and Ram. Allstate claims it “did this to better account for their inability to distinguish whether a person was actually driving based on the location and movements of their phone.”

This brings up one of the major problems with Allstate’s data collection, apart from its secrecy and failure to get consent from consumers. If you ride as a passenger in a bus, a friend’s car, or an Uber, Lyft, or taxi, you will be recorded as having the driving habits of those drivers. Some of my wildest rides in an automobile have been with New York and Chicago cab drivers. So, according to Allstate, I may have the bad driving habits of those taxi charioteers.

[Damifino]

In his spare time, Musk needs to create a phone and OS that intrinsically blocks all of that unless specifically approved.

Could a regulation be written such that it requires this without overstepping?

[DesertRhino]

But TikTok…. Data…. Gotta be American!

[redfreedom]

We were Allstate customers for 40 years until our rates skyrocketed on one billing cycle. I called the office and the woman said it was because of a recent accident was my fault. I said they advertised on TV the first accident is on them. She countered by saying that’s not in our state.

So I called the agent that ran the place. He said it was because I shopped around for loans at different banks for the last new car we bought. The multiple credit checks on our credit report is what done it.

I dropped them like a hot potato and went to State Farm. Rates were slightly less than Allstate prior to the big jump.

[Alberta's Child]

At the root of this problem is the uncomfortable fact that you don’t own your mobile phone app data.

Take the time to read the terms and conditions of any app, and you’ll see that you should have no expectation of privacy when you download it onto your mobile device.

[Dartoid]

There is a phone out that that does that. The guy was on Shawn Ryan’s podcast.

https://unplugged.com/products/up-phone

[Erik Latranyi]

In his spare time, Musk needs to create a phone and OS that intrinsically blocks all of that unless specifically approved.

Musk has already tweeted about the "X phone" that gives total privacy to the owner and uses Starlink for communications, ensuring the best coverage on Earth of any provider.

Space-X is launching many more satellites for cellular service in advance.

If a FReeper is not on X, they should be. It is a great place to get news and discuss issues.

Musk will turn X into a payment platform as well as video content, etc.

[Bernard]

And that phone should be manufactured in this country by people who are more likely to like us than the Chinese. Same thing with our medications and computers. The current state of manufacturing stuff we actually need looks like a suicide pact.

[redfreedom]

There are ways to defeat this being tracked by phone or vehicle. Those that cherish freedom of movement do it a lot.

Most people would not stand for the things we do to accomplish this freedom. We grew up in an age where there was no such thing as a car phone, so we shut the phone off while driving and don’t miss it.

The vehicle GPS system is disabled on the vehicle and can’t be tracked. This disables anything wireless, such as the FOB key unlocking the door and that little screen on the dash, the compass and whatever. Never had it when we grew up, don’t miss it now. The radio doesn’t work either, that we miss.

[antidemoncrat]

Politicians aren’t exempt from this either. I donated to three Republicans on their websites in early Summer of 2024. After that I started receiving 15 to 30 texts every day from other Republicans asking for you know what ... $$$. There appears to be a website labeled WinRed that collects web info for donors like me and broadcasts it to all other Republicans in the world. I’m still receiving 10 to 15 texts every day asking for guess what ... $$$. It will take a real emergency before I ever vote for another Republican again.

[bert]

That is very foolish

the proper course is to never contribute to another Repbublican again. By not voting Republican, you are cutting off your nose to spite your face

[Zuriel]

I have a concern about dropping my phone, or leaving it somewhere. So, as with the days of old when we had no cell phones, I simply go places without it.

During my trucking career, the phone had to go along (I still drive part-time) I regularly left my phone in the truck, usually out of sight. And a big semi can’t turn around just anywhere, if one suddenly remembers one’s phone was left on a shelf, countertop, box, etc at a business.

[ridesthemiles]

NEVER HAD A CELL PHONE

NEVER WILL

RAN A BOOKKEEPING BUSINESS FOR OVER 44 years with only a land line & answering machine. Never had a client complain.

[PAR35]

I know that Google, Samsung, and Verizon are tracking me via my cellphone unless I remove the battery. I avoid third party apps. Need your app to get discounts at your store? No thanks. I’ll shop somewhere else. Need your app to conveniently do business with you? No thanks, Google’s tracking me anyway, I’ll just use their browser and put up with the inconvenience.

If you want my data, buy it from one of the above.

[George from New England]

So ? No radio without them tracking you ?

[mewzilla]

If you want privacy, leave the cell at home or use a Faraday bag.

If you want cheaper insurance, drive safely.

If you’re smart, you do both.

[George from New England]

I have no code to enter to use my phone. On the other hand, I have no apps, just a browser there. No $$$ done on my phone.
Problem is if I don’t hear phone ring, screen turns on, and butt dialing or other can occur. I know no workaround for that. I have android with LinageOS