Illinois class action alleges Allstate illegally collected consumer data

A new class action lawsuit alleges that Allstate Corp. and its subsidiaries unlawfully collected data on trillions of miles driven by consumers and sold the information to third parties.

A group of 25 plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on February 5 in Illinois federal court against Allstate Corp., Allstate Insurance Co., Allstate Vehicle and Property Insurance Co., Arity LLC, Arity 875 LLC, and Arity Services LLC.

The lawsuit claimed Allstate covertly gathered and sold large amounts of consumer driving and personal data, including geolocation, accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscopic, altitude, longitude, latitude, bearing, GPS time, speed and accuracy data.

According to the complaint, the company collected this information from mobile and in-car devices to generate individualized driver profiles based on driving habits and movement.

“World’s largest driving behavior database”

The plaintiffs alleged that Allstate collected this data without informing or obtaining consent from millions of customers.

“Defendants were so effective that they created the ‘world’s largest driving behavior database,’ consisting of trillions of miles driven by over 45 million Americans,” the lawsuit stated. The complaint also alleged that Allstate profited from selling consumer driving and personal data to third parties, including other insurance companies, while also using it for its own business operations.

The plaintiffs seek to represent anyone in the US whose data was collected by Allstate through the Arity software development kit. The lawsuit also claimed violations of the Federal Wiretap Act, Stored Communications Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as multiple state laws.

In 2024, Allstate agreed to pay $3.3 million to settle claims that it recorded consumer calls without consent, allegedly violating California’s Invasion of Privacy Act.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC and Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP.

Lawsuit in Texas

In January, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton sued Allstate and Arity for allegedly collecting, using and selling personal data of more than 45 million drivers across the US.

“Our investigation revealed that Allstate and Arity paid mobile apps millions of dollars to install Allstate’s tracking software,” Paxton said. “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.”

Texas is pursuing penalties, including at least $17,000 for each violation of the state’s insurance code and data privacy law, and as much as $10,000 for violations related to data brokers. The state also requests full restitution for consumers affected by these alleged illegal data practices.