MW Your car knows a lot about you. The FTC wants to make sure GM and other carmakers don't take advantage.

By Claudia Assis

FTC says it has taken its first-ever action related to connected-vehicle data

U.S. regulators took aim at General Motors Co. and its OnStar unit late Thursday, saying that they had taken their first-ever action related to connected-vehicle data.

The Federal Trading Commission alleged that GM $(GM)$ used its driver-assistance and smartphone-connectivity systems to collect data about people's driving habits and locations without notice or consent - information that eventually found its way to insurance companies.

Under a proposed order to settle the allegations, GM and OnStar would be be banned for five years from disclosing users' geolocation and driver-behavior data to consumer-reporting agencies, the FTC said.

GM failed to clearly disclose to consumers that the information it collected - which included instances of hard braking, late-night driving and speeding - would be sold to the agencies, the regulator said.

"These consumer-reporting agencies used the sensitive information GM provided to compile credit reports on consumers, which were used by insurance companies to deny insurance and set rates," the FTC said.

In a statement, GM said that respecting customers' privacy "and earning their trust is deeply important to us." It added that it has discontinued some of the services, ended relationships with third-party agencies and consolidated many of its privacy statements "into a single, simpler statement as part of our broader work to keep raising the bar on privacy."

"The FTC consent order includes new measures that go above and beyond existing law, while capturing steps we've already taken to establish choices for customer-data collection and communications about how the information is used," the carmaker said.

Under the proposed agreement, GM must get "affirmative express" consent from users before it collects the data - except in the case of emergencies such as providing the location of a crash to first responders - and allow people to delete and limit the amount of information they share.

In addition, GM must take steps "to provide greater transparency and choice to consumers over the collection, use and disclosure of their connected-vehicle data," the regulator said.

The FTC alleged that the carmaker used a "misleading" enrollment process to sign up people for OnStar's connected-vehicle service and OnStar's now-discontinued Smart Driver feature, and that in some cases drivers were not even aware they had signed up for the services.

GM's OnStar offers a slew of plans for as much as $53 a month offering roadside assistance and crash detection, as well as more mundane hands-free services such as turn-by-turn directions, traffic updates and connections to popular music apps such as Spotify and Pandora.

Over time, GM increased the amount of data it collected through OnStar to include "precise" geolocation data that it gathered every three seconds for some users, the FTC said.

"Tracking and collecting geolocation data can be extremely privacy-invasive, revealing some of the most intimate details about a person's life," it said.

-Claudia Assis

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January 16, 2025 18:07 ET (23:07 GMT)

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