It was already a hectic day when my insurance broker left a frantic voicemail telling me that my homeowner’s insurance had lapsed. I felt nauseous and naked. Suddenly, any leak, fire, or tree branch falling onto the hundred-year-old Hudson Valley house that’s been in my family for nearly 40 years could wipe out my bank account. I spiraled in shame. How did I let this happen? Did I forget to update a credit card? Did I miss a bill? Did I do something wrong with the policy? But when I checked my records, even the Travelers website, there was nothing.
A few hours later, my panic turned to bewilderment. When I finally reached my insurance broker, he told me the reason Travelers revoked my policy: AI-powered drone surveillance. My finances were imperiled, it seemed, by a bad piece of code.
I take privacy and surveillance extremely seriously — so seriously that I started one of the leading think tanks on the topic, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. But while I study surveillance threats around the country for a living, I had no idea that my own insurance company was using my premium dollars to spy on me. Travelers not only uses aerial photography and AI to monitor its customers’ roofs, but also wrote patents on the technology — nearly 50 patents actually. And it may not be the only insurer spying from the skies.
This didn’t just feel creepy and invasive — it felt wrong. Literally wrong: There was nothing wrong with my roof.
I’m a lazy homeowner. I hate gardening, and I don’t clean as often as I should. But I still take care of the essentials. Whether it’s upgrading the electrical or installing a new HVAC, I try to make sure my home is safe. But to Travelers’ AI, it appeared, my laziness was too big a risk to insure. Its algorithm didn’t detect an issue with the foundation or a concern with a leaky pipe. Instead, as my broker revealed, the ominous threat that canceled my insurance was nothing more than moss.