Tag Archives: patent

Allstate Decides the Data in Your Car Is Not Enough [Interview]

By American Privacy, Data Mining, Media Appearances, ,

Earlier this summer, I was interviewed by by Becky Yerak (@beckyyerak), the Business Reporter for the Chicago Tribune, about a patent issued to Allstate Insurance Company under the innocuous-sounding name “Motor Vehicle Operating Data Collection Analysis.” As I wrote at the time, the patent raises significant privacy issues. If you want to get the most…

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New US Patent for Allstate Threatens to Turn Privacy into Road Kill on the Information Highway [Interview]

By American Privacy, Data Mining, Media Appearances, ,

In late March, Allstate was issued US Patent No. 2014/0080100 A1 with the relatively innocuous title of “Motor Vehicle Operating Data Collection Analysis” (see below). The legalese that is typically used in patent applications obscures some of the potentially invasive aspects of this patent. Here’s the text from the abstract (or summary) of the patent:…

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