The value of sharing: Branding and behaviour in a life and health insurance company. Issue 2 (September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jeanningros, Hugo; McFall, Liz
• Is Part Of: Big data & society. Volume 7:Issue 2(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-09
• Subjects: Health insurance -- behavioural insurance -- branding -- datafication -- internet of things -- Vitality; Big data -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Research -- Data processing -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Data mining -- Periodicals; 300.28557
• DOI: 10.1177/2053951720950350
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2053-9517

Abstract

As Big Data, the Internet of Things and insurance collide, so too, do the best and the worst of our futures. Insurance is summoned as an example of the interference in our private lives that is already underway everywhere. In this paper, we pause to reflect on this argument. Can changes in the way insurance measures the value of behaviour really serve as an example of the individual and social harms of datafication? How do we know? Insurance is a mathematical relationship staged between individuals and groups, between risk and uncertainty, between distribution and assessment, between the value of sharing and the sharing of value. We use the case study of Discovery International, owner of Vitality, the market leading brand in behavioural insurance to consider how behaviour is being branded and how the brand behaves.