Toyota Collected, Sold Drivers' Data to Insurance Company, Class-Action Suit Alleges
Toyota was sued Monday in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas for the alleged collection and sale of drivers' data to insurance company Progressive, despite saying in their Data Sharing Policies that it does not share this information without the drivers' consent. Progressive uses the data in their Snapshot data-sharing program that measures a variety of aspects related to driving, the class action alleges.
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"Unbeknownst to Plaintiff and Class Members, Defendant Toyota was collecting vast amounts of information including their location, speed and driving habits – even minute details such as acceleration, deceleration and “cornering” events – as well as images and sounds captured by their vehicles, and sharing it for profit to third parties," the lawsuit said. They "suffered actual injury from having their Driving Data collected from their vehicles and sold to third parties including, but not limited to, (a) damage to and diminution in the value of their Driving Data—a form of property that Defendants obtained from Plaintiff; (b) violation of their privacy rights; (c) the likelihood of future theft of their Driving Data from these third parties," and additionally "overpaid for their vehicles as a result of not knowing that these vehicles would collect and transmit highly intimate details of their movements, and that Defendant Toyota would share them with third parties without Class Members’ consent."
Case 25-00406 alleges violations of the Federal Wiretap Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and invasion of privacy claims, among other counts. This lawsuit comes after several state attorneys general have led similar suits against car and insurance companies for the collection and sale of geolocation and other driver data, such as Indiana AG Todd Rokita (R) at the end of March (see 2503270040) and Texas AG Ken Paxton (R) suing Allstate in January (see 2501130047). The FTC also proposed a settlement with GM and Onstar back in January for allegations the companies collected and sold consumers’ location data without proper consent (see 2501170068).