Texas Sues General Motors Over Allegedly Selling Driver Data

Texas Accuses GM of Data Sales to Insurance GroupsSOPA Images - Getty Images

You know the saying: Don't mess with Texas. On Tuesday, August 13, the Lone Star State announced it is suing General Motors, accusing the brand of unlawfully collecting and selling private driving data to insurance companies. The accusation, which follows an official Texas investigation that began in June, covers a total of 16 million customers and "most 2015 model year or newer GM vehicles."

A filing from the Texas Attorney General office accuses GM of "deceptively [collecting] scores of data points from consumers about their driving habits, [monetizing] that data by selling it to other commercial actors, and [permitting] those actors to use the ill-gotten data to make adverse decisions when dealing with customers." According to the filing, the system made note of activities like "late-night driving, driver and passenger seat belt status, instances of sharp turns, and hard braking, hard acceleration events, and driving over 80 mph."

These numbers were taken into account when creating a "driving score," which the office says GM calculated for more than 16 million customers. These numbers could then be accessed directly by insurers.

The Texas filing further accuses GM of gathering consent for the data-harvesting tools tied into its OnStar program through a "highly misleading" collection of disclosures and other documents presented during the car sales process. Notably, the office says nothing in the maze of documents suggested that the company would "sell any of their data, let alone their driving data."

Finally, the document notes that enrollment in the data collection services was incentivized at the dealer level, and further supported by warnings that safety features would be inactive if a buyer opted out.

In addition to the official action from the state of Texas, GM is also being sued directly by consumers. At least two other lawsuits exist, including a class action suit over the same data harvesting concerns filed in April of this year.

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