skip to Main Content
Stay in Touch  
Subscribe

Big Data refers to massive databases of information about (millions) of individual consumers, and data mining (rooting around the data looking for any type of pattern)—all packaged into some kind of scoring model. An insurer might use all types of non-insurance databases of personal consumer information for marketing, pricing, and claims settlement.

Insurers have always been in the data collection and data management business, but historically the data collected was limited. In the past decade, insurers started utilizing credit information and data mining, collecting social security numbers and non-insurance data such as web browsing history or online shopping habits, and using new categories of insurance data such as more granular claims data, drones, or telematics. The Center for Economic Justice has advocated for greater consumer disclosure and control over the personal data collected by insurers, for greater security and protection of these personal data by insurers and for meaningful disclosure and redress if the personal data are lost by or stolen from insurers.

Insurer’s use of big data has huge implications for fairness, access, and affordability of insurance. Despite insurers’ claims that algorithms are “objective,” Big Data algorithms can  easily reflect and perpetuate historic unfair discrimination. In a 2004 study, the Missouri Department of Insurance found that the single best predictor of the average insurance credit score in a zip code was the size of the minority population in the ZIP code.

The Center for Economic Justice believes that insurers’ use of Big Data holds great opportunities to improve availability and affordability of insurance, to improve transparency in insurance sales and claims settlement, and to promote partnership between consumers and insurers to prevent losses and promote resiliency and sustainability. But such outcomes are not automatic. Without public policy guardrails, insurers will use Big Data in the opposite direction—resulting in less transparency and less accountability to consumers.

Insurer’s use of Big Data poses a huge challenge to state insurance regulation. Big Data and associated algorithms radically increases the market power of insurers, both versus regulators and versus consumers.  Regulators face huge challenges in their ability to keep up with changes and protect consumers from unfair practices. CEJ continues to hold insurers accountable for their practices, to improve the available market monitoring tools for insurance regulators, and to increase disclosure of insurer Big Data practices. We aim to stop unfair practices that undermine insurance availability and affordability.

Name Downloads Version Owner Last Modified Rating
Name Downloads Version Owner Last Modified Rating
860 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-06-21 12:24
1152 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-06-21 12:23
773 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-05-15 12:23
1050 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-05-03 12:17
902 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-04-06 11:52
758 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-04-06 11:50
834 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-20 11:53
723 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-07 11:47
722 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-01 12:21
1047 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-01 12:18
776 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-12-03 20:55
791 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-09-21 20:57
757 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-09-18 20:58
811 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-09-10 20:56
727 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-15 21:00
738 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-14 20:59
798 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-08 21:01
829 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-06 20:57
664 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-05-25 14:36
741 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-05-24 14:33
743 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-28 14:47
756 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-24 15:04
767 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-08 15:26
834 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-08 15:25
697 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-03-03 15:13
712 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-01-05 14:52
703 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-10-25 15:27
789 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-10-13 15:30
797 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-09-27 15:12
753 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-28 14:41
671 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-19 15:28
726 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-08 15:05
720 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-08 14:46
793 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-01 15:29
695 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-05-09 15:18
745 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-05-04 15:19
742 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-04-03 14:38
817 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-02-01 15:15
757 downloads 1.1 Dana Glass 2015-12-10 15:33
820 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-11-01 13:50
717 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-07-21 13:48
681 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-07-20 13:54
796 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-07-03 14:37
783 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-06-29 15:22
747 downloads 1.1 Dana Glass 2015-05-27 14:51
708 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2014-08-16 15:09
671 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2012-03-19 15:21
Back To Top