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
1017 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-06-21 12:24
1329 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-06-21 12:23
904 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-05-15 12:23
1207 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-05-03 12:17
1031 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-04-06 11:52
894 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-04-06 11:50
1017 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-20 11:53
836 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-07 11:47
861 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-01 12:21
1216 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2018-03-01 12:18
897 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-12-03 20:55
905 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-09-21 20:57
922 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-09-18 20:58
954 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-09-10 20:56
826 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-15 21:00
861 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-14 20:59
972 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-08 21:01
981 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-08-06 20:57
780 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-05-25 14:36
844 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-05-24 14:33
891 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-28 14:47
874 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-24 15:04
909 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-08 15:26
1013 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-04-08 15:25
879 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-03-03 15:13
847 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2017-01-05 14:52
818 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-10-25 15:27
935 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-10-13 15:30
940 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-09-27 15:12
899 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-28 14:41
806 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-19 15:28
884 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-08 15:05
861 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-08 14:46
919 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-08-01 15:29
816 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-05-09 15:18
880 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-05-04 15:19
879 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-04-03 14:38
954 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2016-02-01 15:15
882 downloads 1.1 Dana Glass 2015-12-10 15:33
952 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-11-01 13:50
847 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-07-21 13:48
838 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-07-20 13:54
933 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-07-03 14:37
915 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2015-06-29 15:22
877 downloads 1.1 Dana Glass 2015-05-27 14:51
863 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2014-08-16 15:09
801 downloads 1.0 Dana Glass 2012-03-19 15:21
Back To Top