The Federal Trade Commission has taken action against General Motors and OnStar for allegedly sharing driver details with third parties without their consent. Authorities launch an investigation into the car company after The New York Times revealed that GM collected data on customers’ vehicle usage and sold it to third-party platforms used by insurance companies. did.
This information comes from the OnStar Smart Driver program, which customers who own GM vehicles are encouraged to participate in or who have not consented to participate. The program reportedly collected data on behaviors such as hard braking, late-night driving, and speeding and sold that information to LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk, which in turn sold the data to insurance companies. . Shortly after the Times report, GM announced it had stopped sharing sensitive information with two data brokers.
Today, the FTC proposed a settlement that would prohibit both GM and OnStar from disclosing consumer location and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies for five years. These companies will be ordered to take additional steps to increase transparency and customer choice about the information they collect and share.
“GM was monitoring and selling people’s precise location data and driver behavior information, sometimes every three seconds,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “With this action, the FTC is protecting Americans’ privacy and protecting them from unchecked surveillance.”
