Lawsuit: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to quietly track driving behavior [View all]

[usonian]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/01/allstate-sued-for-allegedly-tracking-drivers-behavior-through-third-party-apps/

Texas has sued insurance provider Allstate, alleging that the firm and its data broker subsidiary used data from apps like GasBuddy, Routely, and Life360 to quietly track drivers and adjust or cancel their policies.



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According to Texas' complaint (PDF), the data collected included "a phone's geolocation data, accelerometer data, magnetometer data, and gyroscopic data, which monitors details such as the phone's altitude, longitude, latitude, bearing, GPS time, speed, and accuracy."

With that data—plus, in some cases, data from connected vehicles—Allstate could see when, how far, and for how long someone was driving, along with "hard braking events" and "whether a consumer picked up or opened their phone while traveling at certain speeds," according to the complaint.

Texas' lawsuit claims that Arity incentivized—through "generous bonus incentives"—apps like GasBuddy, a gas price-tracking app, and Life360, which is intended to keep tabs on family members' location, to "increas[e] the size of their dataset." Under their agreements with app makers, Arity had "varying levels of control over the privacy disclosures and consent language" shown to app users, according to the complaint.

The suit also cites Allstate as gathering direct car use data from Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, and Ram vehicles.

Discussion on Hacker News.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42699771


Pithy response:

Seems like the bigger part of the story is at the bottom. You can uninstall GasBuddy from your phone but finding and buying a new car that doesn't track you is a bigger hassle.