Giant automaker General Motors (GM) has reached a multimillion-dollar deal in California to settle allegations of unlawful sales of driver data.
According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, GM will pay $12.75 million in civil penalties to settle allegations of collecting and retaining data from hundreds of thousands of California drivers who subscribed to the automaker’s vehicle connectivity service, OnStar.
According to a lawsuit filed by California’s attorney general and several district attorneys in the state, the data in question includes “names, phone numbers, home addresses, speeds, rapid acceleration and hard braking, as well as the GPS location of where OnStar subscribers drove and parked their vehicles.”
The lawsuit further alleged that GM informed OnStar subscribers that their data would only be used to assist in providing OnStar services such as “calling an ambulance, providing directions, or improving driver skills.”
But in 2020, GM began selling driver information to data brokers Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis Risk Solutions, without the consent or knowledge of its customers. According to the lawsuit, this violated California’s privacy and consumer protection laws.
“The deals were structured so that GM would benefit financially as Lexis and Verisk continued to receive driver data and use it to provide updated driver ratings for insurers to purchase. Ultimately, GM earned approximately $20 million nationally in connection with these data sales.”
In addition to the $12.75 million fine, the settlement also requires GM to stop selling data to consumer reporting agencies for half a decade. GM is also obliged to delete the driving data it has retained within six months and also to request Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis Risk Solutions to delete the driving data.
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