A function that allowed customers to have their driver license information prefilled online when applying for a car insurance quote has led to thousands of peopleโs personal information being exposed, a new nationwide class action alleges.
Plaintiff Alp Baysal filed the class action lawsuit against American Family Insurance Company, S.I. and its subsidiary, Midvale Indemnity Company, Tuesday in a Wisconsin federal court.
Baysal says the companies, which provide insurance products to Americans across the country, violated the Driversโ Privacy Protection Act and were negligent in their handling of consumer information on their websites.
โDefendants readily provided Plaintiffโs and putative Class Membersโ driverโs license number to anyone who entered a personโs name, address and/or date of birth into their on-line quoting system,โ the claim states.
โThus, customers, prospective customers, and even members of the public who were not even prospective customers of Defendants, had this sensitive personal information compromised.โ
Baysal says he was one of these members of the public. He had never requested a quote from either of the defendants, but on May 13 this year he received notice from Midvale that his personal information had been exposed to unauthorized third parties.
The class action lawsuit explains that the companies provide online automobile insurance quotes to consumers through the amfam.com website.
To make the quoting process easier for consumers, an American Family third-party supplier prefills certain information in the online quoting form โ such as driverโs license number โ after a consumer enters personal information into the form. Midvale does the same through the midvaleinsurance.com website.
However, as reported by the companies, unauthorized parties used an automated bot process to obtain driverโs license numbers by entering personal information such as name and address into the quoting platform. The bots were operating between Feb. 6 and March 19 this year for American Family customers, and between Jan. 19 and 29 for Midvale customers,
โThis means that for an unknown period of time between at least January 19 and March 19, 2021, Plaintiffโs and Class Membersโ driversโ license numbers were essentially publicly available to anyone on various Defendantsโ online platforms due to Defendantsโ lax security practices.โ
American Family reported that 283,734 unique driverโs license numbers were returned in the pre-fill information for all quotes that were generated during the period.
โPlaintiff and the Class are now at much higher risk of identity theft and for cybercrimes of all kinds, especially considering the highly valuable and sought-after private PI stolen here,โ the class action alleges.
Baysal is looking to represent a nationwide Class of United States residents whose personal information was compromised in the situation announced May 13.
He is seeking an injunction, certification of the class action, an order to delete Class member information and improve security, damages, interest, fees costs and a jury trial.
Meanwhile, in 2013, American Family Insurance agreed to a class action lawsuit settlement over allegations it made improperly low payments on claims submitted through its automobile Medpay coverage.
What do you think of the allegations of insecurity on the American Family websites? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiffs are represented by David W. Asp, Kate M. Baxter-Kauf and Karen Hanson Riebel of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP.
The American Family Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Alp Baysal et al., v. Midvale Indemnity Company et al., Case: 3:21-cv-00394, U.S. District Court Western District of Wisconsin.
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