Editorial: The personalisation of insurance: Data, behaviour and innovation

• Published in: Big data & society Vol. 7; no. 2
• Main Authors: McFall, Liz, Meyers, Gert, Hoyweghen, Ine Van
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.11.2020; Sage Publications Ltd; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Adoption of innovations; Behavior; Big Data; Customization; Innovations; Insurance; Telematics; insurance; personalisation; Big Data Analytics; Behavioural data; surveillance; telematics
• ISSN: 2053-9517; 2053-9517
• DOI: 10.1177/2053951720973707

The adoption of Big Data analytics (BDA) in insurance has proved controversial but there has been little analysis specifying how insurance practices are changing. Is insurance passively subject to the forces of disruptive innovation, moving away from the pooling of risk towards its personalisation or individualisation, and what might that mean in practice? This special theme situates disruptive innovations, particularly the experimental practices of behaviour-based personalisation, in the context of the practice and regulation of contemporary insurance. Our contributors argue that behaviour-based personalisation in insurance has different and broader implications than have yet been appreciated. BDAs are changing how insurance governs risk; how it knows, classifies, manages, prices and sells it, in ways that are more opaque and more extensive than the black boxes of in-car telematics.