General Motors has been banned from selling customer geolocation and driving behavior data for five years, following a Federal Trade Commission investigation that found the company had collected micro-details about its customers’ driving habits without their consent.
The investigation, led by the New York Times, revealed that GM’s OnStar service was collecting data on customers’ acceleration, braking, and trip length, and then selling it to insurance companies and third-party data brokers. This practice left some vehicle owners confused as to why their insurance premiums were increasing.
GM used a “misleading enrollment process” to get customers to sign up for its OnStar connected vehicle service and Smart Driver feature, failing to disclose that the company was collecting their personal data or seeking their consent to sell it to third parties. After the practice was exposed, GM discontinued its OnStar Smart Driver program.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated that GM monitored and sold people’s precise geolocation data and driver behavior information “sometimes as often as every three seconds.” The FTC is now safeguarding Americans’ privacy by requiring GM to obtain consent from customers before collecting their driving behavior data, and allowing them to request and delete their data if they choose.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/16/24345470/gm-banned-selling-driving-data-insurance-ftc