GM Data Settlement: $220M Over Sold Driver Tracking

The GM data settlement is the kind of headline that makes anyone who has ever sat behind a wheel check their phone settings. General Motors agreed on Thursday to pay two hundred twenty million dollars to settle claims that it sold drivers' private driving and location data to brokers, who passed it to insurance companies, according to the New York Attorney General's office.

A coalition of thirty-six attorneys general brought the case. It lands more than two years after a New York Times investigation first showed how data from GM's Smart Driver feature ended up in insurance risk reports. For a generation that grew up with every app tracking every move, this one hits different, because the tracker was the car itself.

What GM allegedly did

From twenty sixteen to twenty twenty-four, GM enrolled millions of drivers in Smart Driver, according to the New York Attorney General. The program logged how often a person drove, when each trip started and ended, how many times they braked or accelerated hard, and whether they went over the speed limit.

GM pitched it as a way to become a safer driver and told customers it would not share data with insurers without express consent. The coalition says the reality was different: GM sold the information to data brokers under contracts that spelled out its use for insurance products. Those brokers then sold detailed trip reports to insurers.

How people got signed up without knowing

Most customers joined at the dealership while buying a car. GM used a single sign-up flow for Smart Driver and its OnStar service, which handles directions and roadside help. In many cases, dealership employees allegedly clicked through the terms and conditions on behalf of buyers.

Investigators also say GM rewarded dealers with bonuses tied partly to how many customers they enrolled in connected services, and ranked dealerships by enrollment numbers. On top of that, the OnStar app mistakenly told more than three hundred seventy thousand drivers they were not enrolled in Smart Driver when their data was still being collected and sold.

The real-world cost: higher premiums

The New York Times investigation cited by the attorney general found that some drivers saw big jumps in their premiums after GM shared their driving history. One owner was told by an insurance broker that a twenty-two percent increase came from information supplied by a data broker. The report that driver obtained ran one hundred thirty pages and listed details of every drive over six months.

Law360 reported that the claims involve nearly ten point three million drivers' behavior data and location information. Insurers could potentially use that to change rates even for people who never filed a claim, which is the part that stings most.

Who gets paid and what changes

The money gets split among the states. New York will receive more than twelve million dollars, and Washington, which co-led the case, says it will get twelve point three million, according to the Washington Attorney General. Ohio expects about eight million, and Pennsylvania about eight point six seven million.

The settlement also forces changes. GM must get affirmative, express consent before collecting or disclosing driving and location data, and it has to limit the data it gathers in the first place. It must set up an in-house privacy assessment program plus a third-party review, and add oversight and training at dealerships so nobody is enrolled without consent.

What it means for your next car

Connected cars are basically phones with wheels, and this case shows how quickly that data can become a product. Smart Driver has been discontinued, but the same question applies to every automaker: what is your car collecting, and who else sees it?

Privacy laws did real work here. Connecticut's attorney general said, according to the state's announcement, that the probe was one of its first actions under the Connecticut Data Privacy Act. If you drive a GM, check your app privacy and connected services settings, and keep an eye on our tech coverage and politics reporting for the next fights over car data.