For the next five years, General Motors isn’t allowed to sell drivers’ location and driving behavior data to consumer reporting agencies. In addition, the company must be more transparent and offer customers more options about collecting, using, and sharing their vehicle data.
In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused General Motors of implementing a misleading enrollment process to get consumers to sign up for its OnStar connected vehicle service and the OnStar Smart Driver feature.
According to the antitrust agency, the Michigan-based car company failed to clearly disclose that it collected consumers’ precise geolocation and driving behavior data and sold this information to third parties, including credit rating and insurance companies, without consumers’ consent.
In addition, General Motors didn’t tell consumers what types of information it collected through its OnStar Smart Driver feature, such as instances of hard braking, late-night driving, and speeding. It sold this information to consumer reporting agencies to compile credit reports.
In turn, insurance companies used these credit reports to deny people car insurance or to calculate their premiums on them.
“GM monitored and sold people’s precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds. With this action, the FTC is safeguarding Americans’ privacy and protecting people from unchecked surveillance,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said at the time.
The FTC and General Motors reached a settlement last year, which has now been finalized by the regulator.
As part of the settlement, General Motors is prohibited from selling location data and data regarding drivers’ driving behavior to consumer reporting agencies for the next five years. Furthermore, for a period of 20 years, the car manufacturer must obtain affirmative express consent from consumers before collecting, using, or sharing vehicle data.
In addition, General Motors must offer US consumers the option to request a copy of their data and to have it deleted.
Lastly, consumers must also be given the option to disable the collection of their vehicle's exact location, and they must also be able to opt out of the collection of their location data and driving behavior.
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