General Motors will pay $220 million to settle claims from the District of Columbia and 35 states that it sold customers' driving data without adequate consent, according to the source excerpt, which cites Ars Technica.
GM marketed its Smart Driver system as a way for parents to monitor teen drivers or for adults to track their own driving. The source reports that in 2024, it emerged that GM had shared that data with brokers, who then sold it to insurance companies. The source says some drivers saw their insurance premiums rise as a result. Many of those drivers claimed they never agreed to share data for those purposes.
Last year, GM and its OnStar subsidiary settled with the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC settlement was finalized in January and bars the companies from sharing certain driver data, including geolocation and driver behavior data, with third parties for five years. GM also discontinued Smart Driver across its entire range.
The states' attorneys general sued GM separately. According to the source, the settlement with the states requires a third party to verify that GM complies with its privacy policy, rather than relying on GM's own assurances, according to TechCrunch.
GM told Reuters in a statement: "[s]afer, more helpful and personalized experiences are enabled by connected vehicle data, and GM is committed to being clear about what information is used, how it's protected, and the choices customers have about what they share."