Penalty Amount
$975,000
Consumers Affected
45,000
New York Attorney General Letitia James reached a $975,000 settlement with Root Insurance Company over a data breach that exposed the personal information of approximately 45,000 New York residents. The breach, discovered in January 2021, stemmed from Root’s inadequate data security measures, including unencrypted driver’s license numbers in quote PDFs and insufficient controls against automated attacks. In addition to the monetary penalty, Root must implement enhanced data security measures including a comprehensive information security program, data inventory, and monitoring systems.
Root must pay $975,000 in penalties. The company is also required to implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program, develop a data inventory of private information with reasonable safeguards, implement reasonable authentication procedures for access to private information, and maintain a logging and monitoring system with policies to alert on suspicious activity.
In-house legal teams, particularly those in the insurance industry or companies that collect consumer driver’s license information via online tools, should review vendor agreements for web development, data security, and cloud hosting services to ensure they mandate adequate risk assessments of public-facing applications, prohibit plaintext storage of sensitive PII (including driver’s license numbers), and require controls to prevent automated attacks. Data processing and security vendor contracts should also include requirements for maintaining comprehensive data inventories, implementing reasonable authentication procedures for private information access, and deploying logging/monitoring systems with suspicious activity alerting. Additionally, contracts governing online consumer quoting tools should include specific security standards to prevent vulnerabilities like unauthorized prefilling of sensitive data.
Entity
Root Insurance Company
Also known as: Root
Industry
InsuranceOfficial Press Release
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2025/attorney-general-james-secures-975000-auto-insurance-company-over-data-breach
root insurance company assurance of discontinuance 2025
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/settlements-agreements/root-insurance-company-assurance-of-discontinuance-2025.pdf
New York Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://ag.ny.gov/press-releases
"secured $975,000 in penalties from Root, an auto insurance company"
"$975,000 in penalties"
"March 20, 2025"
"approximately 45,000 New Yorkers"
"OAG found that Root failed to perform adequate risk assessments on its public-facing web applications, did not identify the plain text exposure of consumer personal information, and employed insufficient controls to thwart automated attacks"
"Root’s system exposed full, plaintext driver’s license numbers in a PDF generated at the end of the auto quote process"
New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a consumer alert on May 18, 2026, warning residents of potential price gouging by transportation service providers during the Long Island Rail Road strike. The alert reminds businesses that New York’s price gouging laws prohibit unconscionable price increases on essential services like transportation during market disruptions. No specific privacy violations or enforcement actions against individual entities were announced in the alert.
New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a consumer alert on May 18, 2026, warning businesses against engaging in price gouging on transportation services during the Long Island Rail Road strike. The alert reminds businesses that New York’s price gouging laws prohibit unconscionable price increases on essential goods and services during market disruptions, with potential penalties of up to $25,000 per violation. No specific enforcement action against a particular entity was announced, only a general warning for businesses and a call for consumers to report suspected price gouging.
This press release announces New York Attorney General Letitia James leading a coalition of 21 state attorneys general, the District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania’s Governor in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a Fifth Circuit ruling that would reinstate in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone, a medication used for abortion. The coalition argues the ruling is scientifically unsupported, would restrict telehealth access to reproductive care, and undermines state sovereignty over abortion policy post-Dobbs. This is not a privacy-related enforcement action, as the content addresses reproductive health policy rather than data privacy violations.
$5.0M
New York Attorney General Letitia James secured a $5 million settlement from cryptocurrency platform Uphold HQ, Inc. for promoting Cred’s fraudulent CredEarn investment product as safe and reliable, when Cred was making risky loans to uncreditworthy borrowers in China. Uphold also falsely claimed Cred had comprehensive insurance and promoted the product without registering as a broker or commodity broker-dealer under New York law. As part of the settlement, Uphold will pay $5 million to harmed investors, remit $545,189 from Cred’s bankruptcy to customers, improve due diligence policies for third-party products, and register as a broker with the OAG.
$7.4B
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the shutdown of opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma as part of a $7.4 billion settlement with a bipartisan coalition of 54 other state attorneys general. The Sackler family, former owners of Purdue, are permanently barred from selling opioids in the U.S. and have no involvement in Knoa Pharma, the new public benefit corporation replacing Purdue. Purdue was sentenced on criminal charges related to its role in the opioid crisis on April 28, 2026, with the new entity operating under strict oversight and excess revenue funding opioid abatement efforts.
New York Attorney General Letitia James led a bipartisan coalition of 24 state attorneys general, Puerto Rico, and New York City in sending letters to nine major credit card companies and payment processors urging them to block transactions facilitating illegal vaping product sales. The coalition cites federal and state laws prohibiting unauthorized e-cigarette sales, particularly to youth, and requests collaboration to prevent payment networks from processing such transactions. No enforcement penalties or actions were imposed as part of this initiative.