Actuaries were the first data scientists. Pooled risk calculations, in the form of insurance underwriting, involved consumers implicitly consenting to their personal data being used – in return, the reduction of premium costs. Data in exchange for money. As technology advances, the data streams we are able to offer, or rather the insurers feel they can request become more personal, more intimate. For example John Hancock and Fitbits, or vehicle telematics as we implemented at Aviva in 2006 effectively spawn data sharing agreements. This paper goes into more detail.
Clients may feel trapped into sharing their private digital data with insurance companies to get a desired insurance product or premium. However, private insurance must collect some data to offer products and premiums appropriate to the client’s level of risk. This situation creates tension between the value of privacy and common insurance business practice. We argue for three main claims:
From Highway to (Digital) Surveillance: When Are Clients Coerced to Share Their Data with Insurers by Michele Loi, Christian Hauser and Markus Christen
First, coercion to share private data with insurers is pro tanto wrong because it violates the autonomous choice of a privacy-valuing client.
Second, we maintain that irrespective of being coerced, the choice of accepting digital surveillance by insurers makes it harder for the client to protect his or her autonomy (and to act spontaneously and authentically). The violation of autonomy also makes coercing customers into digital surveillance pro tanto morally wrong.
Third, having identified an economically plausible process involving no direct coercion by insurers, leading to the adoption of digital surveillance, we argue that such an outcome generates further threats against autonomy.
This threat provides individuals with a pro tanto reason to prevent this process. We highlight the freedom dilemma faced by regulators who aim to prevent this outcome by constraining market freedoms and argue for the need for further moral and empirical research on this question.”