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
726 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-06-21 12:24
1018 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-06-21 12:23
631 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-05-15 12:23
887 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-05-03 12:17
746 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-04-06 11:52
616 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-04-06 11:50
682 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-20 11:53
601 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-07 11:47
592 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-01 12:21
892 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-01 12:18
642 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-12-03 20:55
660 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-09-21 20:57
621 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-09-18 20:58
664 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-09-10 20:56
637 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-15 21:00
610 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-14 20:59
650 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-08 21:01
677 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-06 20:57
535 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-05-25 14:36
610 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-05-24 14:33
615 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-28 14:47
623 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-24 15:04
617 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-08 15:26
686 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-08 15:25
540 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-03-03 15:13
583 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-01-05 14:52
574 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-10-25 15:27
647 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-10-13 15:30
660 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-09-27 15:12
626 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-28 14:41
528 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-19 15:28
581 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-08 15:05
573 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-08 14:46
649 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-01 15:29
579 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-05-09 15:18
618 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-05-04 15:19
613 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-04-03 14:38
686 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-02-01 15:15
622 downloads 1.1 Dana Glass 2015-12-10 15:33
697 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-11-01 13:50
582 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-07-21 13:48
543 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-07-20 13:54
660 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-07-03 14:37
659 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-06-29 15:22
616 downloads 1.1 Dana Glass 2015-05-27 14:51
561 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2014-08-16 15:09
549 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2012-03-19 15:21
Back To Top