In today’s digital age, many individuals have a sense of being constantly monitored. According to a recent report by The New York Times, this concern is not unfounded: various smartphone apps are collecting data on driving habits and selling it to insurance companies.
Insurance companies have long been interested in tracking individual driving behaviors to identify potential reasons for adjusting rates. Traditionally, they have used OBD dongles and proprietary smartphone apps for this purpose. However, they are now employing a new strategy: purchasing data from popular apps already installed on users’ phones.
Several apps, such as Life360, MyRadar, and GasBuddy, are involved in this practice. Life360 is known for helping parents keep track of their children’s whereabouts, MyRadar provides weather forecasts, and GasBuddy aids users in saving on fuel costs. These apps include optional driving analysis features that utilize phone sensors and motion data. Users can activate these features to receive crash notifications involving family members or suggestions for more fuel-efficient routes. However, these features are powered by Arity, an analytics company established by Allstate in 2016, which pays for access to the collected data. Crucially, users are not always aware that Arity also evaluates their driving risk for insurance purposes.
For instance, GasBuddy offers a feature that assesses the fuel efficiency of users’ drives, branded as “powered by Arity.” Brandon Logsdon, a spokesperson for Arity, stated that users must agree to Arity’s privacy statement before opting into the Drives function.
The implications of such data collection are significant, as it allows insurance companies to gain deeper insights into individual driving behaviors, potentially leading to higher insurance rates for users.
