Vehicle & Driving Data Brokers
Your car is watching
Your Car Is a Rolling Surveillance Platform
Modern vehicles are rolling surveillance platforms. They collect data on every trip you take, how fast you drive, how hard you brake, and where you go — and automakers are selling this data to insurance companies, law enforcement, and data brokers.
Arity (Allstate)
What they are: Created by Allstate Corporation in 2016. Part software developer, part data broker, part ad-tech company. Has collected over one trillion miles of driving data at a current rate exceeding one billion miles per day.[1]
How it works: Arity designed a software development kit (SDK) called the “Driving Engine” that is embedded in third-party mobile apps. Consumers unknowingly download Arity’s tracking software whenever they install one of these apps. Arity specifically targeted apps that already used location-based features — including Life360, Routely, and Fuel Rewards — to avoid alerting consumers to the data collection.[2] The SDK collects location data from a phone once every 15 seconds and generates trip summaries including miles driven, acceleration, speeding, phone usage while driving, and braking patterns.[3]
Who buys it: Insurance companies (who use it to raise premiums, deny coverage, or drop customers), advertisers through a targeted advertising business.[2]
Enforcement: On January 13, 2025, the Texas Attorney General sued Allstate and Arity in the first-ever enforcement action under a state comprehensive data privacy law, alleging they secretly collected driving data on approximately 45 million Americans without consent and built the “world’s largest driving behavior database.”[4] Arity also failed to register as a data broker with the Texas Secretary of State as required by law.[5]
LexisNexis Risk Solutions
What they are: One of the two major brokers of driver behavior data (alongside Verisk). Operates the LexisNexis Telematics Exchange, which ingests driving data from automakers and generates risk scores for insurance carriers.[6]
What data they have: More than 29 billion driving miles and hundreds of thousands of recorded claims. Currently receives connected vehicle data from General Motors, Mitsubishi Motors, and Nissan. Launched “Telematics OnDemand” to deliver driver behavior scores at the point of insurance quote.[7]
The problem: While Verisk shut down its driver behavior product in 2024 amid backlash, LexisNexis continues to prominently promote and expand its driver behavior data products.[8] Senators Ron Wyden and Ed Markey wrote to the FTC in July 2024 demanding an investigation into how automakers and data brokers collect and sell driver behavior data to insurance companies.[9]
Verisk Analytics
What they are: Major insurance data analytics company. Operates ISO ClaimSearch with 1.5+ billion claim records and 90%+ participation from property and casualty insurers.[10]
What data they had: Received driving behavior data from automakers including GM, Honda, and Hyundai. Shut down its driver behavior scoring product in mid-2024 after a New York Times investigation exposed how connected car data was being secretly sold to insurers.[11] The financial impact was less than $1 million in revenue.[11] Verisk continues other telematics and insurance analytics operations.
The General Motors Scandal
In August 2024, Texas AG Ken Paxton sued General Motors for collecting driving data from over 1.8 million Texans — and more than 14 million vehicle owners nationwide — without meaningful consent through technology in 2015+ model year vehicles, then selling it to LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk Analytics.[12] Those companies generated “Driving Scores” sold to insurance companies who used them to raise premiums.
How GM did it: During vehicle setup, GM compelled buyers to enroll in its OnStar Smart Driver program as part of the “onboarding” process, telling them that failing to enroll would result in deactivation of their vehicle’s safety features. Unbeknownst to customers, enrolling meant “agreeing” to GM’s collection and sale of their driving data — including date, start and end times, speed, distance driven, and seatbelt status — for every trip taken.[13] GM stopped sharing data with LexisNexis and Verisk in March 2024 following the initial reporting.[11]