General Motors has reached a privacy-related settlement with a group of law enforcement agencies led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta.<\/p>\n
Back in 2024, The New York Times reported that automakers including GM were sharing information about their customers\u2019 driving behavior with insurance companies, and that some customers were concerned that their insurance rates had gone up as a result.<\/p>\n
The settlement announcement from Bonta\u2019s office similarly alleges that GM sold \u201cthe names, contact information, geolocation data, and driving behavior data of hundreds of thousands of Californians\u201d to Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which are both data brokers.\u00a0 Bonta\u2019s office further alleges that this data was collected through GM\u2019s OnStar program, and that the company made roughly $20 million from data sales.<\/p>\n
However, Bonta\u2019s office also said the data did not lead to increased insurance prices in California, \u201clikely because under California\u2019s insurance laws, insurers are prohibited from using driving data to set insurance rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of the settlement, GM has agreed to pay $12.75 million in civil penalties and to stop selling driving data to any consumer reporting agencies for five years, Bonta\u2019s office said. GM has also agreed to delete any driver data that it still retains within 180 days (unless it obtains consent from customers), and to request that Lexis and Verisk delete that data.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeneral Motors sold the data of California drivers without their knowledge or consent and despite numerous statements reassuring drivers that it would not do so,\u201d Bonta said in a statement, adding that the settlement \u201crequires General Motors to abandon these illegal practices and underscores the importance of the data minimization in California\u2019s privacy law \u2014 companies can\u2019t just hold on to data and use it later for another purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
GM had previously settled with the Federal Trade Commission over its data sales, with a final order banning General Motors and OnStar from selling certain data with consumer reporting agencies.<\/p>\n