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General Motors data privacy practices have led to a lawsuit filed by Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers against GM and its OnStar service.
The data privacy lawsuit alleges GM violated the law by collecting and selling driving data from Nebraska drivers without their consent or knowledge.
Nebraska alleges GM and OnStar violated the Nebraska Consumer Protection Act and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act through “deceptive and unconscionable business practices.”
The data sharing lawsuit references a series of 2024 New York Times articles about GM’s actions, including in an article titled, “How GM Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On (Including Me).” The article talked about how GM made money from sharing driving data of their customers and how the automaker shared data with insurance companies.
The lawsuit says General Motors responded to the Times and “confirmed that it shares ‘select insights’ about hard braking, hard accelerating, speeding over 80 miles an hour and drive time of Smart Driver enrollees with LexisNexis and another data broker that works with the insurance industry called Verisk.”
“It is possible that G.M. drivers who insisted they didn’t opt in were unknowingly signed up at the dealership, where salespeople can receive bonuses for successful enrollment of customers in OnStar services, including Smart Driver, according to a company manual.” — New York Times
General Motors also said it would stop providing Driving Data to Verisk and LNRS, and would discontinue Smart Driver out of “[c]ustomer trust.”
The Federal Trade Commission followed by taking action against GM data sharing practices, and the automaker entered a consent order with the government and agreed not to sell certain driving data to consumer reporting agencies for five years.
The Nebraska attorney general claims insurance rates increased or in some cases drivers were denied insurance coverage. In other cases, GM drivers learned their insurance policies were canceled but didn’t know why.
The lawsuit further alleges GM wasn’t up front about its OnStar service which misled vehicle owners into believing they needed OnStar to access basic safety features.
And according to the GM data sharing lawsuit:
“Dealership employees were incentivized to enroll customers without proper disclosure and, in some cases, without any consent at all.”
The GM data sharing lawsuit was filed in the District Court of Lancaster County Nebraska: Michael T. Hilgers v. General Motors LLC, and OnStar LLC.
The General Motors lawsuit was filed by Nebraska Attorney General Michael T. Hilgers, and Susman Godfrey L.L.P.