The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reached an agreement with General Motors GM 2.81%↑ and its OnStar business unit for allegedly collecting and selling consumer data from millions of vehicles in the United States—without user consent. The agency, in an order dated Jan. 16, will ban GM from disclosing sensitive data to consumer reporting agencies for five years.
GM has been accused, through its OnStar Smart Driver program, of collecting and selling geolocation and driver behavior information. Some of this sensitive data were sold to such third parties as LexisNexis and Verisk.
The FTC said the potential harm from the data usage include impact on insurance rates and basic privacy violations. “GM monitored and sold people’s precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan, in a statement. “With this action, the FTC is safeguarding Americans’ privacy and protecting people from unchecked surveillance.”
Under the terms of the agreement, GM, which discontinued the Smart Driver program and its partnerships with third-party telematics providers in 2022 after consumer complaints, the automaker must obtain consumer consent for collecting vehicle data except for emergencies. In addition, consumers must be able to disable geolocation tracking, opt out of data collection, have access to their data and be able to request deletion of that information.
For its part, GM said it updated its privacy practices, consolidated privacy statements and allowed consumers to request data and privacy adjustments online.
 has reached an agreement with General Motors GM 2.81%↑ and its OnStar business unit for allegedly collecting and selling consumer data from millions of vehicles in the United States—without user consent. The agency, in an order dated Jan. 16, will ban GM from disclosing sensitive data to consumer reporting agencies for five years.){kind=link}