General Motors will pay $220 million for secretly transferring driving data to insurers The American car manufacturer General Motors entered into a settlement agreement with prosecutors in 35 states and the District of Columbia and will pay $220 million. The company has been accused of secretly selling car owners' driving and geolocation data. The claims concerned the Smart Driver option, which was available in millions of vehicles from 2016 to 2024. The manufacturer promoted it as a tool to improve safety and promised not to share information with insurers without the owner's consent. In practice, the built-in electronics recorded routes, travel times, excessive speed, sudden braking and even driving without a seat belt. The company sold these reports to information brokers, who passed them on to the insurance companies. Insurance companies have increased the cost of policies for drivers with a fast driving style. Prosecutors found that dealers received bonuses for connecting customers to the service and often activated it without the customers' knowledge right when the transaction was being completed. More than 370,000 drivers were notified that they were not subscribed to the monitoring, although the system continued to collect and sell their data. According to the terms of the agreement, General Motors must obtain separate consent from the drivers to collect any information, reduce the number of monitored parameters and strengthen the supervision of the dealers. The entire amount will go to the state budget, and the car owners themselves will not receive compensation. The concern did not admit guilt, but promised to make the handling of personal information more transparent.

General Motors will pay $220 million for secretly transferring driving data to insurers The American car manufacturer General Motors entered into a settlement agreement with prosecutors in 35 states and the District of Columbia and will pay $220 million. The company has been accused of secretly selling car owners' driving and geolocation data. The claims concerned the Smart Driver option, which was available in millions of vehicles from 2016 to 2024. The manufacturer promoted it as a tool to improve safety and promised not to share information with insurers without the owner's consent. In practice, the built-in electronics recorded routes, travel times, excessive speed, sudden braking and even driving without a seat belt. The company sold these reports to information brokers, who passed them on to the insurance companies. Insurance companies have increased the cost of policies for drivers with a fast driving style. Prosecutors found that dealers received bonuses for connecting customers to the service and often activated it without the customers' knowledge right when the transaction was being completed. More than 370,000 drivers were notified that they were not subscribed to the monitoring, although the system continued to collect and sell their data. According to the terms of the agreement, General Motors must obtain separate consent from the drivers to collect any information, reduce the number of monitored parameters and strengthen the supervision of the dealers. The entire amount will go to the state budget, and the car owners themselves will not receive compensation. The concern did not admit guilt, but promised to make the handling of personal information more transparent.