General Motors agreed to pay $220 million to settle claims from 36 attorneys general, 35 states plus Washington, D.C., that it collected and sold drivers' data without clear consent. Washington and Oregon led the case. Washington, Arizona and Michigan announced it on Oct. 29; Kansas followed on Nov. 5.
What the states say happened
From 2016 to 2024, GM's Smart Driver program enrolled millions of drivers of Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac vehicles, according to Washington's attorney general.
It recorded trip counts, start and end times, hard braking, hard acceleration and speeding.
More than 370,000 drivers were told by the OnStar app that they were not enrolled, the Washington attorney general says.
California's separate case, settled in May for $12.75 million, says GM sold driving data to data brokers LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk and earned about $20 million nationwide from those sales.
GM ended Smart Driver in 2024, after The New York Times reported in March 2024 that automakers were sharing driving behavior with insurers.
What GM must do now
Get your express consent before collecting, using or sharing driving or location data. A pre-checked box or broad terms of use does not count.
Let you turn off location data collection on vehicles that support it.
Give you a copy of your data, and the kinds of companies it went to, within 45 days of a request, and an easy way to delete it.
Delete driving data it kept from before Jan. 16, 2025, within 180 days, and ask past buyers of the data to delete it too.
What drivers do not get
No direct payments. GM does not admit wrongdoing. GM told KCTV5 the agreement "addresses Smart Driver, a product we ended in 2024."
What you can do this week
Ask LexisNexis for your free driving and claims report to see what insurers can see. Wednesday's issue shows how.
If you drive a GM vehicle, ask GM for a copy of your data or its deletion; the settlement requires GM to offer both. Friday's issue covers the steps for GM, Ford and Toyota.
Up next · Wednesday
The LexisNexis consumer report: how to request the file that holds your auto claims and any driving behavior data, and how to dispute errors.