By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) – GM has agreed to pay $12.75 million to resolve a California investigation into allegations that the Detroit automaker illegally sold two data brokers detailed information about the driving habits of hundreds of thousands of Californians, state Attorney General Rob Bonta said on Friday.
The settlement, subject to court approval, includes $12.75 million in civil penalties. It also restricts GM’s use of consumer driving data compiled about subscribers to its OnStar service and a ban on such data being sold to brokers. It includes a five-year ban on sales of personal data.
The data that GM sold to the brokers included names, phone numbers and home addresses. It detailed the GPS location of where OnStar subscribers drove and parked their vehicles.
GM from 2016 through 2024 also kept track of speeds traveled and incidences of rapid acceleration, the state said. Media reports said this data about driving behavior was shared with auto insurers who used it to justify rate increases in some places, although Bonta said California law bars insurers in the state from using such information to set rates.
California said GM reportedly made approximately $20 million nationwide from these data sales and added GM collected this data through consumers’ use of OnStar, which can provide directions or summon an ambulance in case of a crash, among other functions.
“General Motors sold the data of California drivers without their knowledge or consent and despite numerous statements reassuring drivers that it would not do so. This trove of information included precise and personal location data that could identify the everyday habits and movements of Californians,” Bonta said.
GM said the settlement “addresses Smart Driver, a product we discontinued in 2024, and reinforces steps we’ve taken to strengthen our privacy practices.”
GM added it is committed to being transparent with customers about data practices and their choices and control over personal information.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said this year that GM’s behavior amounted to an “egregious betrayal of consumers’ trust.” In January 2025, the FTC said GM and its subsidiary OnStar agreed not to disclose or sell sensitive vehicle geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies for five years.
In 2023, a California state privacy agency announced investigations into the privacy practices of connected vehicles. Media reports in 2024 suggested automakers, including GM, were sharing consumers’ driving behavior with insurance companies and some insurers had raised consumers’ rates based on this data, Bonta said.
Bonta said California drivers did not experience rate hikes due to GM’s sales of data. Under California’s insurance laws, insurers are prohibited from using driving data to set insurance rates.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)
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