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Oregon and Washington led a coalition of 36 attorneys general who secured a $220 million settlement from General Motors, which allegedly sold driving behavior information for eventual use by insurance companies.
Announcing the settlement on October 29, Oregon AG Dan Rayfield said Oregon will receive more than $10.4 million of the $220 million.
Rayfield said in the future GM must generally obtain customers’ permission to collect and share their driving behavior and location data, subject to exceptions in the judgment. The alleged data-sharing practices resulted in higher premiums for some drivers.
The AG said the settlement “puts people back in control of their own information.”
GM Enrolled Millions of Drivers in the Smart Driver Program
GM enrolled millions of drivers in the Smart Driver program between 2016 and 2024, according to the attorneys general. Drivers were told the company would not share their data with insurers without their express consent.
However, the coalition of AGs alleged that GM had in fact sold the information to data brokers for insurance product use. This resulted in higher premiums for some drivers.
According to the AGs, most drivers enrolled in the Smart Driver program signed up for the program at the dealership where they bought their vehicles.
The AGs contended that in many cases, dealership employees accepted the terms and conditions of the program on behalf of their customers without their consent.
Sales employees earned bonuses based on the number of customers they enrolled in GM’s connected vehicle services, and dealerships were ranked based on their enrollment performance, the AGs said.
The consent judgment sets out the new privacy requirements, including separate consent for unrelated services that use covered driver data.
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