FTC Bans General Motors and OnStar From Selling Your Driving Data for Five Years

By
Mitch Talley
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3
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FTC Bans General Motors and OnStar From Selling Your Driving Data for Five Years

Photo Credit: Chevrolet


If you own a GM vehicle and want to keep your driving habits private, here’s good news from the Federal Trade Commission.

The federal agency announced Thursday that General Motors and its subsidiary OnStar will not be allowed to sell customer geolocation and driving behavior data for the next five years.

No word on what happens after the five-year ban, however.

In additional, the settlement forces GM to receive consent from customers before their driving data is collected and must allow them to request and delete their data if they choose.

The FTC says a “misleading enrollment process” was in place by GM to entice vehicle owners to register for the OnStar and Smart Driver services.

What GM didn’t share with its customers, according to the FTC, was that it was collecting data on their driving habits like acceleration, braking, and trip length and selling it to insurance companies and third-party data brokers like LexisNexis and Verisk. Drivers weren’t told that GM was even collecting their data nor did the company seek their approval to sell that information to third parties.

“GM monitored and sold people’s precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. “With this action, the FTC is safeguarding Americans’ privacy and protecting people from unchecked surveillance.”

The GM practice was brought to light after a New York Times investigation, which prompted GM to announce at the time it was stopping its OnStar Smart Driver program.


Source:
TheVerge.com

Related:
GM Ends Program that Shared Customer Driving Data with Brokers and Insurance Companies
GM is Now Facing a Lawsuit for Selling OnStar Driving Data to Insurance Companies and Data Brokers
[VIDEO] Check Your MyChevrolet App to Opt Out of GM Sharing Your Driving Habits with Insurance Companies

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3 COMMENTS

  2. Fluff. The fact that the data is being collected in the first place–is the real problem. Clamping down on where the data is sent–that’s a band-aid fix. Until we get real consumer protection in the form of preventing data collection altogether–there are only Pyrrhic victories.

  3. FYI: Pyrrhic victory is considered the overall winner, the cost incurred and their future repercussions diminish the sense of genuine success.
    King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at the battle of Heraclea in 280 BC and the battle of Asculum in 279 BC.

    PS First modification, removing the fuse to my “OFFSTAR”, on my 2/2016 C7.

    Thanks,
    Ray

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