Data broker prepares a new driver-related product as another continues to draw scrutiny

A data broker that is already under fire for how it handles drivers’ behavior data is close to releasing a new product, based on real-time driving data, that is intended to help insurance companies find desirable customers.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions says a “Lead Generation” product is coming soon, promising insurers “direct access to prospective customers who meet your target parameters based on near real-time driving data."

The new offering comes amid an ongoing uproar over how the data broker's sales of driver behavior data — obtained from automakers via connected cars — is used by insurers to set rates.

The Lead Generation product is touted on the same page where LexisNexis Risk Solutions describes the existing data product, known as Telematics OnDemand.  

A March New York Times article first revealed how the company  serves as a bridge between automakers and insurers. The Times reported that the data broker builds consumer risk profiles and “knew about every trip G.M. drivers had taken in their cars, including when they sped, braked too hard or accelerated rapidly.”

LexisNexis Risk Solutions did not respond to a request for comment.

The data broker’s new product comes at a time when automakers are under mounting pressure over how vehicles handle drivers’ behavior data. 

“There’s no earthly justification for a third party to vacuum up behavioral driving data and sell it off as sales leads,” said John Davisson, director of litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “This is another gratuitously invasive product from a company that thrives off of obliterating our privacy.” 

“If I were a consumer protection agency, I’d take a close look at this system today before it even hits the market,” he added.

Earlier this month, Texas’ attorney general’s office announced it is investigating several car manufacturers for secretly hoovering up and selling large quantities of data taken directly from connected cars.

“The technology in modern vehicles enables manufacturers to collect millions of data points about the people driving them,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement at the time. “Reports of the invasive and unmitigated collection and sale of data without consumer consent are disturbing, and they merit a thorough investigation and appropriate enforcement.”

In May, Recorded Future News reported that Paxton’s office had begun preliminary investigations into how connected car makers’ practice of gathering and selling data could violate the state’s consumer protection law as a deceptive trade practice. 

Kia, General Motors, Subaru and Mitsubishi received “civil investigative demand” letters in late April, according to documents obtained by Recorded Future News. More car companies may have received the letters but that could not be confirmed.

The company describes Telematics OnDemand as a feature that will help insurers “better assess risk exposure and more accurately price a policy at both the point of quote and renewal.” 

“It is designed to deliver timely, normalized driving behavior data from U.S. automakers, mobile apps and 3rd party services that participate in our telematics exchange,” the website says.

Logos for Mitsubishi, Kia and Subaru — three of the four car companies Texas is known to be investigating — are listed on the Telematics OnDemand page as “automotive OEM exchange partners” who “turn connected car data into tangible driving behavior insights that can be leveraged within insurance carriers' existing workflows.”

The California Privacy Protection Agency is also investigating automakers’ data sharing practices and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently warned the car industry to “take note that the FTC will take action to protect consumers against the illegal collection, use, and disclosure of their personal data.”