Do Data Brokers Affect Your Insurance Rates?

Yes, data brokers can affect your insurance rates, and more directly than most people realize. Specialized risk brokers such as LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk compile reports on your insurance claims history and, increasingly, your actual driving behavior collected from your connected car, then sell risk scores that insurers use as a factor in setting your premium. This is a different corner of the data industry from the people-search sites that expose your address, and it works quietly, which is exactly why so few people know it is happening.

It is worth being precise here, because this is an area where honesty matters more than a scary headline. Removing yourself from people-search sites will not lower your insurance premium. The brokers that feed insurance pricing are separate, and they operate under different rules. But understanding how they work, and knowing that you can see and challenge what they hold, is genuinely useful, and a couple of the levers are things you control directly.

How do data brokers set my insurance rate?

Insurers rarely price you from scratch. They buy data. LexisNexis Risk Solutions runs a division built specifically for the insurance industry, and its C.L.U.E. report, short for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, is a standard record of your past home and auto insurance claims that carriers pull when you apply. Verisk offers similar loss-history and analytics products. When you request a quote, an insurer can order a report keyed to you and use the risk score inside it as one input among several. The data comes from claims databases, public records, and, in the newer and more controversial cases, directly from your car.

Is my car really sending my driving data to insurers?

For many drivers, yes, and it became a national story in 2024. A New York Times investigation revealed that automakers had been sharing connected-car data, things like hard braking, rapid acceleration, speed, and trip times, with data brokers including LexisNexis and Verisk, which turned it into driver risk scores for insurers. One driver profiled had never been at fault in an accident yet saw his premium jump 21 percent; when he requested his file from LexisNexis, it ran to hundreds of pages detailing individual trips. General Motors drew the most attention, but Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Ford, and others were named as offering connected services that could feed the same pipeline. Another driver, rejected by seven insurers, filed a class-action lawsuit against GM and LexisNexis days after the story broke.

Did anything change after the reporting?

Regulators moved. In May 2026, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $12.75 million settlement with General Motors after finding the automaker had sold driving and location data from hundreds of thousands of California drivers to Verisk and LexisNexis between 2020 and 2024. It was the largest penalty in the seven-year history of the California Consumer Privacy Act. There is an important wrinkle, though: California's Proposition 103, passed in 1988, bars insurers there from pricing policies on telematics or driving-behavior data, and Hawaii and Massachusetts have similar bans. That means drivers in California were shielded from rate effects, but drivers in the other 47 states have had no such statutory protection, so broker-sourced driving data could reach their premiums.

Can I see what these brokers have on me?

Yes, and this is one of your real levers. Because these reports are used for insurance decisions, they fall under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which gives you the right to request your file and dispute errors. You can ask LexisNexis Risk Solutions for your C.L.U.E. report and your driving-behavior file, and request your report from Verisk as well. Review them for claims that are not yours, inaccurate details, or trips you did not take, and dispute anything wrong. An error corrected here can matter more to your wallet than almost anything else in this article.

How do I stop my car from sharing driving data?

Start by finding out what your vehicle collects, then turn off what you can. You can look up your car by its VIN using a vehicle privacy report tool to see what data it gathers and shares. From there, review the automaker's connected-services app and account settings and disable data sharing or telematics features, and be cautious about enrolling in any program that promises a discount for letting your car monitor your driving, since that is the enrollment that hands over the data. Our guide on whether your car is selling your driving data covers this in detail.

So where does removing people-search listings fit in?

Honestly, not in your premium, and it would be wrong to suggest otherwise. But it fits your broader exposure. The less of your personal data sits publicly across the broker ecosystem, the smaller your overall footprint and the fewer places your information can be cross-referenced or misused. One insurance-adjacent piece you can act on is LexisNexis itself, which sells far more than insurance data. Our LexisNexis opt-out guide walks through limiting what it holds. Think of insurance data and public listings as two separate fronts, each worth tending, rather than one fix for both.

Does opting out of brokers stay done?

On the public-listing side, not without upkeep. People-search sites rebuild profiles from fresh data, so listings you clear tend to return. Consumer Reports measured the gap plainly: removals done automatically or by hand cleared only about 27 percent of exposed listings, while removals carried out by real people who keep watch and refile reached roughly 70 percent. On the insurance side, the equivalent upkeep is different, checking your C.L.U.E. and driving reports periodically and keeping your car's data sharing switched off. Both fronts reward attention over time rather than a single action.

Frequently asked questions

Is a C.L.U.E. report the same as a credit report?

No. A C.L.U.E. report is a record of your past insurance claims, not your credit. Both fall under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, so you can request each and dispute errors, but they are separate files used for different decisions. Many insurers also use credit-based insurance scores where state law allows.

Will turning off my car's data sharing lower my rate?

It will not change your current premium on its own, but it stops new driving data from flowing to brokers going forward, which removes one factor that could push a future quote higher. Pair it with checking your driving-behavior file for errors already on record.

Do all states allow driving data in pricing?

No. California, Hawaii, and Massachusetts restrict insurers from pricing on telematics or driving-behavior data. The other states generally permit it, so where you live affects how much this issue touches your premium.

How do I request my LexisNexis or Verisk report?

Both companies provide consumer disclosure request options through their risk-solutions consumer portals, as required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Request your file, review it for anything inaccurate, and use their dispute process to correct errors.