Preserving Privacy in the Insurance Model Act

State-regulated insurers collect a wide variety of confidential information from their clients. Activists are attempting to force insurance companies to disclose some of that confidential information, including the carbon emissions of their insurance customers, to facilitate pressure campaigns. For example, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners compares its Climate Risk Disclosure Survey to the information required by the activist Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure.1 The need to obtain insurance should not be a basis for having to publicly disclose otherwise non-public information. This bill therefore preserves and protects the right of insurance customers in this state to maintain the confidentiality of such information.

Summary: AN ACT prohibiting the disclosure by insurance providers of insurance customers’ non-public information; providing for enforcement; and providing an effective date.

Section 1. Legislative Findings

The State of [name of state] finds that:

  1. insurance providers are being required by third parties to disclose their customers’ non-public information, including through surveys and questionnaires such as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Climate Risk Disclosure Survey;2
  2. insurance providers are also being pushed by activists to publicly report on “the racial impacts of [their] policies, practices, products, and services”;3 and
  3. this state must ensure that insurance providers are not using their position to collect and then disclose confidential customer information, so that insurance customers are not forced to choose between foregoing insurance or disclosing confidential information that they would not otherwise make public.

Section 2. Prohibited Disclosure of Certain Customer Data by Insurers

  1. This section applies to the following categories of information:
    1. a person’s race or ethnicity, or the race or ethnicity of the person’s employees, suppliers, or customers;
    2. a person’s direct or indirect carbon emissions;
    3. whether a person has adopted any voluntary policy related to carbon emissions, or the contents of any such policy;
    4. a person’s processes and steps for identifying, assessing, or managing climate-related risks from the person’s carbon emissions, and the person’s internal governance related to the same; and
    5. any other categories of information that the [Commissioner of Insurance] determines should not be disclosed by insurance providers in order to facilitate full access to the insurance market in this state.
  2. To the extent that an insurance provider receives or has received any of the categories of information covered by subsection (A) of this section from an insurance customer and the insurance customer does not already publish that same information to the general public, the information is deemed confidential, and the insurance provider may not disclose it. Nothing in this section authorizes an insurance provider to collect or consider any category of information that it is otherwise prohibited from collecting or considering.
  3. No state or local government official in this state may require an insurance provider to disclose any of the information covered in subsection (A) of this section related to any customer or applicant for a policy or contract of insurance located within or without this state. No state or local government official in this state may, in their official capacity, support the adoption of any policy that seeks to require insurance providers to disclose any information covered in subsection (A) of this section related to any customer or applicant for a policy or contract of insurance located within or without this state. Regardless of whether the recipient agrees or is required to maintain confidentiality, no state or local government official in this state may enter into, or participate in, any aspect of an intergovernmental agreement, or similar agreement, that requires, authorizes, or otherwise involves the disclosure of the categories of information listed in subsection (A) of this section related to any customer or applicant for a policy or contract of insurance located within or without this state.
  4. The attorney general and the [Commissioner of Insurance] may each investigate and bring enforcement actions related to violations of this section pursuant to the procedures and remedies in the [state UDAP statute], as well as for declaratory and injunctive relief.
  5. An aggrieved insurance customer may file an action against an insurance provider or state or local government official for declaratory and injunctive relief for a violation of this section. In addition to obtaining declaratory and injunctive relief, an insurance customer that prevails in such an action shall recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs. An insurance provider or a state or local government official shall not be entitled to attorneys’ fees or costs in an action brought under this section, unless the provider or official establishes that the opposing party brought the action without any reasonable basis in fact and solely for the purpose of harassment.
  6. For purposes of this section, the following terms are defined as follows.
    1. “Carbon emissions” means the emission of carbon dioxide, methane, or nitrous oxide into the atmosphere.
    2. “Climate-related risks and opportunities” means transition risks from any anticipated transition to a lower-carbon economy and any opportunities from such transition.
    3. “Direct or indirect carbon emissions” means all direct emissions that stem from sources that the person owns or directly controls, regardless of location, including, but not limited to, fuel combustion activities; all indirect emissions from consumed electricity, steam, heating, or cooling purchased or acquired by the person, regardless of location; and all other indirect upstream and downstream emissions from sources that the person does not own or directly control and may include, but are not limited to, purchased goods and services, travel, and processing and use of sold products.
    4. “Disclose” means to provide to any third party in any format.
    5. “Insurance customer” means a customer or applicant for a policy or contract of insurance located within this state.
    6. “Insurance provider” has the same meaning as provided in [state insurance law].
    7. “Third party” means any government officer or entity, or any person who is not a subsidiary or employee of the insurance provider.

Section 3. Severability

Each section, subsection, paragraph, and portion of each paragraph of this Act is severable. If one or more sections, subsections, paragraphs, or portions of one or more paragraphs of this Act are held invalid on their face or as applied to particular facts, then the remaining portions and applications of the Act shall be given full effect to the greatest extent practicable.

Section 4. Applicability and Effective Date

This Act applies to any action by an insurance provider occurring on or after its effective date.

1 https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/Appendix%20C.pdf
2 See generally https://content.naic.org/climate-resiliency-resource.htm (click on “Climate Risk Disclosure” tab). As of 2022, 14 states and the District of Columbia had made responding to the survey mandatory, which represented nearly 80% of 2021 direct premium nationwide. https://www.crowell.com/en/insights/client-alerts/national-association-of-insurance-commissioners-adopts-new-climate-risk-disclosure-framework. As of 2025, that has increased to 24 states, the District of Columbia, and additional territories. https://idoi.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/insurance/companies/companybulletins/CB2025-11.pdf
3 https://web.archive.org/web/20230406194757/https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/cf-noaction/14a-8/2023/trilliumtravelers011723-14a8-incoming.pdf