Octo delivers road safety, personal security and data privacy
The success of insurance providers has always depended on their ability to collect, understand and act upon the information provided by clients (age, sex, driving experience, etc.) and by authorities (demographics, age-related statistics, etc.). Insurance telematics, which is based on the collection and analysis of big data, allows insurers to custom-tailor advantageous insurance policies that are based on the habits and driving styles of individual motorists.
Big data fuels telematics innovation. It allows analysts to understand driving habits and trends, providing greater safety. The industry, in fact, is shifting from diagnostic to prognostic services that alert drivers before an accident or breakdown is about to happen and indicate route changes before reaching an area affected by traffic congestion, road works or bad weather. Indeed, today’s data will drive tomorrow’s connected cars and the self-driving cars that are already visible on the horizon.
However, notwithstanding the many benefits provided by insurance telematics and its added value services (geo-location of vehicles in case of theft, emergency alert services, etc.), there is a growing debate on the privacy and protection of both personal and aggregated data.
Should data be standardized and shared across the industry to provide a greater understanding of driving trends, promote innovation and increase the safety of roads and security of pedestrians and drivers? This, however, could lead to negative effects on competitiveness and even drive service and pricing similarities, which are carefully monitored by EU competition laws.
In fact, the European Commission has been working on a radical, new European Data Protection Regulation for over three years now and hopes to approve it by the end of the year. The new directive aims to significantly increase fines for data privacy violations, requires companies to appoint a dedicated data protection officer and specifies what data is collected and how it is used. Consumers should also be granted a new right to “data portability,” meaning that information belongs to the client.
Octo Telematics has always been committed to delivering the best-in-class telematics services for personal safety, security, insurance reporting, traffic management, road charging and many other services. As the global leader in insurance telematics, Octo currently manages 3.7 million clients worldwide and a global database of 61 terabytes.
Octo complies with the Italian Protection of Personal Data Guarantee Bill, which is recognised across the European Union, and complies with the ISO 27001 Standard (requiring compliance with national regulations) in non-EU countries.
Octo respects the enormous responsibility of the institutions, companies and individuals trusting it with information on their lives, health, property and driving habits, and operates at the highest levels of system security and data protection standards available. And as a global pioneer in the insurance telematics sector, Octo is ready to adapt and comply with all new standards aiming to improve industry competitiveness and client safety.
For further information:
- Big Data is Driving Vehicles into the Future
- European Directive on Data Protection Regulation