General Motors to pay $12.5 million to settle claims that it illegally sold California driver data

General Motors has agreed to wage $12.5 cardinal dollars to settee claims that the automaker illegally sold determination and driving information of hundreds of thousands of Californians, authorities officials said Friday.

The colony is an illustration of however automakers are facing much scrutiny implicit allegations that they stock operator information with the security industry, influencing however overmuch radical wage for coverage. California, though, has a instrumentality that bars insurers from utilizing driving information to acceptable rates.

“If we get connection that a institution is illegally collecting, storing oregon selling user data, we won’t hesitate to look nether the hood and clasp them accountable to the law,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said successful a quality conference.

The colony is the largest California Consumer Privacy Act punishment successful the state’s history, Bonta said.

The enactment gives California consumers the close to petition that businesses disclose what information they collect. They tin besides opt retired of the sharing oregon merchantability of their idiosyncratic accusation and petition that businesses delete their data.

Investigators recovered that from 2020 to 2024, GM sold operator data, including names, interaction information, determination information and driving behaviour data, to information brokers Verisk Analytics Inc. and LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The information came from a driver’s usage of OnStar, which is owned by GM and provides roadside assistance, navigation and different services.

General Motors didn’t instantly respond to a petition for comment. Various territory attorneys passim the state, including successful Los Angeles and San Francisco, were progressive successful the probe and settlement.

Technology has been playing a bigger relation successful the car industry, but the information collected from drivers tin uncover idiosyncratic accusation astir people’s regular habits, including wherever they driblet disconnected their kids and doc visits.

The California Privacy Protection Agency successful 2023 started investigating the privateness practices of connected cars. As the authorities was looking into the automakers, the New York Times reported successful 2024 that GM was sharing user driving behaviour with security companies. Nationwide, GM reportedly made astir $20 cardinal from selling information to Verisk and LexisNexis.

The state’s privateness extortion bureau has taken enactment against different automakers before. Ford Motor Company was fined $375,703 successful March and Honda was fined $632,500 successful 2025 for privateness violations.

Under the GM settlement, which inactive needs tribunal approval, the automaker would delete immoderate driving information the institution kept wrong 180 days and petition that the 2 information brokers bash the same. They would besides halt selling driving information to user reporting agencies for 5 years and make a privateness programme that includes assessing and mitigating the risks of information collected from OnStar.

California’s colony with GM came aft the Federal Trade Commission successful 2025 besides took enactment against the automaker and OnStar for its privateness practices, barring them from disclosing determination and operator behaviour information to user reporting agencies for 5 years.