GM to pay $220 million to settle claims over driver data sales

what happened

General Motors has agreed to pay $220 million to resolve accusations that it unlawfully sold information about how drivers behaved and where they went to data brokers. According to TradingView, those brokers passed the material on to insurance companies, which could use it when setting or raising premiums.

The deal covers 35 US states and the District of Columbia and concerns the Smart Driver service, which millions of drivers joined between 2016 and its shutdown in 2024. Authorities said the company promoted the program as a way to make people safer behind the wheel, yet collected their data without proper authorization.

According to the terms, GM must restrict the driving data it gathers and obtain explicit consent before collecting or passing on certain information. An independent party will also check how well the automaker follows its new privacy program. Earlier, in May, the company agreed to a $12.75 million settlement in California, and a separate Federal Trade Commission agreement bars it from giving geolocation and driving-behavior records to consumer reporting agencies for five years.

why it matters

The sum is small for an automaker, but the case shows regulators are watching closely how connected-car data reaches insurers and brokers. For investors in the sector, privacy enforcement is a compliance and reputational issue that can add costs even when the penalty itself is modest.

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