General Motors has agreed to a $12.75 million settlement to resolve accusations that it sold hundreds of thousands of Californians' precise location and driving data without permission, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday.
The automaker had repeatedly assured customers in its privacy policy that it would not share such sensitive information. Instead, from 2020 to 2024, GM supplied names, contact details, geolocation records, and behavioral driving data to two data brokers: Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The company generated roughly $20 million from these sales.
"General Motors sold the data of California drivers without their knowledge or consent," Bonta said. "This trove of information included precise and personal location data that could identify the everyday habits and movements of Californians."
The data came from GM's OnStar subscription service, an in-vehicle security and connectivity platform that collects vehicle location and performance information. Once a vehicle's precise location becomes public, it reveals deeply personal patterns: home addresses, workplaces, schools, places of worship, and daily routines. When such information reaches data brokers, consumers typically lose the ability to monitor or control its distribution.
Brooke Jenkins, the district attorney for San Francisco, emphasized the responsibility automakers bear. "Modern cars are rolling data-collection machines," Jenkins said. "Californians must have confidence that they know what data is being collected, how it is being used and what their opt-out rights are. Those duties fall on the automobile companies."
The $12.75 million civil settlement is subject to court approval. Beyond the financial penalty, California has imposed a five-year ban preventing GM from selling consumer-driving data to any data broker and has restricted the company's use of such information going forward.
California authorities began investigating GM and other automakers in 2023, working alongside multiple district attorneys across the state and the California Privacy Protection Agency. The probe followed a 2024 New York Times investigation into how carmakers were sharing driver behavior data with insurance companies. The reporting revealed that some insurers were using this information to raise customer premiums based on driving patterns.
While California law prohibits insurers from using driving data to adjust rates in the state, Bonta underscored that GM's deception harmed consumers regardless. The company had explicitly pledged in its published privacy terms that it would not sell driving or location data, then violated that commitment by transferring the information to commercial data brokers without consent.
GM did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement.
Author James Rodriguez: "GM's playbook was brazen: promise privacy in writing, then monetize it anyway. The $20 million haul shows how profitable the betrayal was, and why settlement checks alone don't fix the broken trust."
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