The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has finalized a major settlement with General Motors and its subsidiary OnStar after finding that the company collected and sold sensitive driving data without clear permission from drivers.
General Motors, which owns well-known brands like GMC, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Buick, produces more than 6.1 million vehicles every year. Its subsidiary OnStar provides connected car services such as navigation, emergency help, vehicle diagnostics, and security features.
According to the FTC, GM used an OnStar feature called Smart Driver to collect detailed information about how and where people drove their cars. This included precise location data and driving behavior, collected as often as every three seconds. The FTC said many customers were not clearly informed that their data was being collected for sale. Instead, Smart Driver was promoted as a tool to help drivers understand and improve their driving habits.
The FTC found that GM sold this data to third parties, including consumer reporting agencies. These agencies then shared the information with insurance companies. As a result, some drivers faced higher insurance premiums or were denied coverage altogether based on their driving data.
Under the final order, GM is banned for five years from sharing driver location and behavior data with consumer reporting agencies. For the full 20 years of the order, GM must get clear and express consent from customers before collecting, using, or sharing data from connected vehicles. The only exception is for emergency-related services.
The order also gives drivers more control over their information. GM must allow U.S. consumers to request a copy of the data collected about them and ask for it to be deleted. Vehicle owners must also be able to turn off precise location tracking and opt out of the collection of location and driving behavior data, with limited exceptions.
The FTC said these strong measures are justified, calling GM’s actions a serious betrayal of consumer trust.
In response, GM said the agreement includes new requirements that go beyond existing laws but also reflect changes the company has already started making. GM stated that it has expanded its privacy program nationwide, giving customers in all 50 states more transparency and options to access or delete their personal information.
This case follows other legal actions related to driving data. In January 2025, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued car insurance company Allstate, accusing it of illegally collecting and selling driving data from more than 45 million Americans. The lawsuit claimed that Allstate gathered this data through software added to popular apps like Life360, GasBuddy, Fuel Rewards, and Routely, without users’ consent.
That lawsuit also names several automakers, including Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Maserati, and Ram, alleging they shared driving data directly with Allstate and its data analytics subsidiary, Arity.
If this article helped you, please consider supporting our work. Every small contribution keeps Abijita.com independent and running.
Together, these cases highlight growing concerns over how connected vehicles and mobile apps collect, use, and sell personal driving data, and they signal tougher enforcement by regulators to protect consumer privacy.
