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GM finally gets wacked due to our bitching about this !
General Motors and its subsidiary OnStar are banned from selling customer geolocation and driving behavior data for five years, the Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday.
The settlement comes after a New York Times investigation found that GM had been collecting micro-details about its customers’ driving habits, including acceleration, braking, and trip length and then selling it to insurance companies and third-party data brokers like LexisNexis and Verisk. Clueless vehicle owners were then left wondering why their insurance premiums were going up.
For example, one consumer told a GM customer service representative that “[w]hen I signed up for this, it was so OnStar could track me.
They said nothing about reporting it to a third party.
Nothing. […] You guys are affecting our bottom line. I pay you, now you’re making me pay more to my insurance company.”
FTC accused GM of using a “misleading enrollment process” to get vehicle owners to sign up for its OnStar connected vehicle service and Smart Driver feature. The automaker failed to disclose to customers that it was collecting their data, nor did GM seek out their consent to sell it to third parties.
After the Times exposed the practice, GM said it was discontinuing its OnStar Smart Driver program.
“GM monitored and sold people’s precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds,”
FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. “With this action, the FTC is safeguarding Americans’ privacy and protecting people from unchecked surveillance.”
The settlement also requires GM to obtain consent from customers before collecting their driving behavior data, and allow them to request and delete their data if they choose.
GM said in an unsigned statement that it was committed to customer privacy.
Sneaky crap from General Motors has reached a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission to address privacy concerns about our now-discontinued Smart Driver program on 1/17/25
Respecting our customers’ privacy and earning their trust is deeply important to us. Although Smart Driver was created to promote safer driving behavior, we ended that program due to customer feedback.
Last year, we discontinued Smart Driver across all GM vehicles, unenrolled all customers, and ended our third-party telematics relationships with LexisNexis and Verisk. In September, we consolidated many of our U.S. privacy statements into a single, simpler statement as part of our broader work to keep raising the bar on privacy.
The FTC consent order includes new measures that go above and beyond existing law, while capturing steps we’ve already taken to establish choices for customer data collection and communications about how the information is used.
As part of the agreement, GM will obtain affirmative customer consent to collect, use, or disclose certain types of connected vehicle data (with exceptions for certain purposes).
The duration of the agreement is 20 years.
DO NOT SIGN 20 YEARS OF SPYING BY AGREEING TO THE ABOVE !
We’re also giving customers more transparency and control. We’ve expanded a GM privacy program to provide customers in all 50 states with options to access and delete their personal information. To exercise your privacy rights, visit GM’s US Consumer Privacy Request Form or call 1-866-MYPRIVACY (1-866-697-7482).
We’re more committed than ever to making our policies and controls clear and accessible as we continue to evolve the driving experience for our customers.
General Motors and its subsidiary OnStar are banned from selling customer geolocation and driving behavior data for five years, the Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday.
The settlement comes after a New York Times investigation found that GM had been collecting micro-details about its customers’ driving habits, including acceleration, braking, and trip length and then selling it to insurance companies and third-party data brokers like LexisNexis and Verisk. Clueless vehicle owners were then left wondering why their insurance premiums were going up.
For example, one consumer told a GM customer service representative that “[w]hen I signed up for this, it was so OnStar could track me.
They said nothing about reporting it to a third party.
Nothing. […] You guys are affecting our bottom line. I pay you, now you’re making me pay more to my insurance company.”
FTC accused GM of using a “misleading enrollment process” to get vehicle owners to sign up for its OnStar connected vehicle service and Smart Driver feature. The automaker failed to disclose to customers that it was collecting their data, nor did GM seek out their consent to sell it to third parties.
After the Times exposed the practice, GM said it was discontinuing its OnStar Smart Driver program.
“GM monitored and sold people’s precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds,”
FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. “With this action, the FTC is safeguarding Americans’ privacy and protecting people from unchecked surveillance.”
The settlement also requires GM to obtain consent from customers before collecting their driving behavior data, and allow them to request and delete their data if they choose.
GM said in an unsigned statement that it was committed to customer privacy.
Sneaky crap from General Motors has reached a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission to address privacy concerns about our now-discontinued Smart Driver program on 1/17/25
Respecting our customers’ privacy and earning their trust is deeply important to us. Although Smart Driver was created to promote safer driving behavior, we ended that program due to customer feedback.
Last year, we discontinued Smart Driver across all GM vehicles, unenrolled all customers, and ended our third-party telematics relationships with LexisNexis and Verisk. In September, we consolidated many of our U.S. privacy statements into a single, simpler statement as part of our broader work to keep raising the bar on privacy.
The FTC consent order includes new measures that go above and beyond existing law, while capturing steps we’ve already taken to establish choices for customer data collection and communications about how the information is used.
As part of the agreement, GM will obtain affirmative customer consent to collect, use, or disclose certain types of connected vehicle data (with exceptions for certain purposes).
The duration of the agreement is 20 years.
DO NOT SIGN 20 YEARS OF SPYING BY AGREEING TO THE ABOVE !
We’re also giving customers more transparency and control. We’ve expanded a GM privacy program to provide customers in all 50 states with options to access and delete their personal information. To exercise your privacy rights, visit GM’s US Consumer Privacy Request Form or call 1-866-MYPRIVACY (1-866-697-7482).
We’re more committed than ever to making our policies and controls clear and accessible as we continue to evolve the driving experience for our customers.