The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has taken action against General Motors and OnStar for sharing driver data with third parties without their consent. The agency launched an investigation into the automotive company after The New York Times revealed that GM collected data on customer car usage and sold it to third-party platforms used by insurance companies.
The information came from the OnStar Smart Driver program, which was encouraged to participate by customers with GM cars who did not realize they had agreed to join. The program collected data on behaviors such as hard braking, late-night driving, and speeding, and reportedly sold this information to LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk, which in turn sold the data to insurance companies. Shortly after the Times story was published, GM announced that it had stopped transferring confidential information to these two data brokers.
Today, the FTC proposed a settlement agreement under which both GM and OnStar will be prohibited for five years from disclosing consumer geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies, and will be required to take steps to ensure transparency and consumer choice. These companies will also be ordered to take additional steps to increase transparency and choice for customers about the information they collect and disseminate.
“GM tracked and sold precise geolocation data and information about driver behavior, sometimes as often as every three seconds,” said FTC Chairman Lina M. Khan. “With this decision, the FTC is protecting the privacy of Americans and protecting people from unchecked surveillance.”
