GM Agrees to Pay $220 Million to 36 States Over Sale of OnStar Smart Driver Data

General Motors will pay $220 million to settle claims that it sold drivers' data without telling them. A coalition of 36 attorneys general says GM sold driver behavior and location data from its Smart Driver program to data brokers, who then sold it to insurance companies. Some insurers used it to help set premiums. Washington and Oregon co-led the case, and Washington says it will receive $12.3 million.

What the states alleged

• The program: From 2016 to 2024, GM enrolled millions of drivers in Smart Driver. According to the Washington attorney general's office, GM pitched it as a way for drivers to improve their own safety and told them it would not share their data with insurers without express consent.
• The data: Insurers had details on how often a person drove, when each trip started and ended, how often they braked or accelerated hard, and whether they went over the speed limit, the office says.
• Dealership sign-ups: Most drivers were enrolled at the dealership through the same process used for OnStar. In many cases, employees allegedly accepted the terms for customers without their consent, while sales staff earned bonuses partly based on connected-service sign-ups.
• 370,000 drivers: The OnStar app wrongly told more than 370,000 drivers that they were not enrolled when they were. GM later unenrolled them without telling them and left their data with the brokers and insurers, the office says.

What GM must do now

The settlement requires GM to get affirmative express consent before it collects or discloses driving and location data. GM must also limit the driving data it collects, run a data privacy program with internal and external assessments, and put oversight and training in place at dealerships. «We're proud to lead this bipartisan agreement holding GM accountable for misusing drivers' data,» said Washington Attorney General Nick Brown.

Carscoops notes that GM ended its deals with data brokers LexisNexis and Verisk shortly after The New York Times reported on the practice. In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission barred GM from sharing geolocation and driver behavior data with consumer reporting agencies for five years.