Allstate faces data privacy lawsuit from Texas

Major U.S. insurance firm Allstate and its data brokerage subsidiary Arity have been sued by the Texas Office of the Attorney General over its unconsented collection and sale of over 45 million Americans' phone location and movement information, which is in violation of the state's Data Privacy and Security Act, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

Mobile apps tracking driver data have been covertly embedded with Arity software, which enables the gathering of real-time location and movement, accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyroscopic details, and other information, including those concerning vehicle acceleration and distracted driving, noted the complaint by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which also accused automakers such as Toyota, Dodge, and Mazda of providing driver data to both Arity and Allstate. Such a development comes more than a month after SiriusXM and the GasBuddy, Tapestri, Life360, MyRadar, and Miles apps — all of which are Arity partners — were warned by Texas regarding nonadherence to the state's data privacy law.