General Motors settles lawsuit over selling customer driving data
General Motors has agreed to pay $12.75 million to settle a lawsuit over the alleged sale of customer driving data to data brokers.Summary
A two-year legal battle between General Motors and California prosecutors, led by Attorney General Rob Bonta, has concluded with GM agreeing to pay $12.75 million in penalties. The Attorney General alleges that GM sold the names, contact information, geolocation data, and driving behavior data of hundreds of thousands of Californians to data brokers, including Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The investigation concluded that "California drivers were not directly impacted by GM's sales of data" because insurers are prohibited from using driving data to set insurance rates under California's strict laws. As part of the settlement, GM has agreed to stop selling driving data to consumer reporting agencies for five years, delete any current driving data within 180 days, and develop its own privacy program. Despite the settlement, GM reportedly earned roughly $20 million from the sale of its OnStar data, meaning they remain profitable.
(Source：Google News)