General Motors to pay $12.75m settlement for selling drivers’ location and data | US news
General Motors (GM) has agreed to pay $12.75 million to resolve allegations that it illegally sold the location and driving data of hundreds of thousands of Californians to two data brokers, state attorney general Rob Bonta said Friday. He said this came after the Detroit-based automaker made “numerous statements assuring drivers that it would not do this.”
“General Motors sold California drivers’ data without their knowledge or consent,” Bonta said in a statement. “This wealth of information included precise, personal location data that could describe Californians’ daily habits and movements.”
The $12.75 million settlement, which is subject to court approval, includes fines. The state also restricts GM’s use of consumer-facing data and imposes a five-year ban on selling such data to any data broker.
Once a vehicle’s precise location is revealed, all kinds of sensitive information can be collected, including where people live, work, go to school or church. Once this data enters the data broker industry, it can be nearly impossible for consumers to control how it spreads.
“Modern cars are whirling data-collecting machines,” said San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins. “Californians need to make sure they know what data is collected, how that data is used, and what their opt-out rights are. Those duties fall on auto companies.”
Automakers have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years over their ability to access driver data and share it with insurance companies and data brokers. New York Times Researched GM and other automakers We examined how consumers’ driving behavior is shared with insurers in 2024. The news outlet found that some companies increased their rates based on this data.
California first began investigating GM and other automakers in 2023. The investigation was conducted in conjunction with Jenkins and various district attorneys across the state, including the California privacy watchdog.
Legislators plan to replace GM from 2020 to 2024 had sold The names, contact information, geolocation data and driving behavior data of hundreds of thousands of Californians are transferred to data brokers Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The company collected the data through OnStar technology, an in-car safety subscription service. GM reportedly earned approximately $20 million from these sales.
Bonta said California drivers won’t see an increase in insurance premiums from GM’s sales because insurers are prohibited from using driving data to set their rates in the state. But Bonta added that GM misled consumers by saying in its privacy policy that it would not sell driving or location data, and then handed it over to data brokers anyway without consumers’ consent.
GM did not immediately return a request for comment.
