GM has ended its business relationship with two data analysis firms, LexisNexis and Verisk, after it was hit with a lawsuit related to allegedly sharing the private OnStar data of individual consumers with those firms and others without first obtaining the vehicle owners’ consent.
GM did not indicate why it terminated its business arrangements with LexisNexis and Verisk, and neither company responded to The Detroit Free Press when it asked for comments, but the action took place simultaneous with a lawsuit against The General alleging misuse of OnStar data by the two data analysis firms.
The lawsuit by Romeo Chicco alleges that information from the GM OnStar Smart Driver program was shared with LexisNexis, although Chicco deliberately did not activate the OnStar services in his 2021 Cadillac XT6 crossover because he had no use for them. Though he never pressed the blue button, the lawsuit says, his driving was nevertheless tracked in detail and shared with LexisNexis and Verisk.
Chicco also never consented for his driving data to be shared, though OnStar says “insights about driving behavior are only shared with an insurance carrier with your explicit consent.” Chicco discovered extensive info about 258 trips had been shared nevertheless when Liberty Mutual denied him insurance based on “acceleration events, hard brake events, high speed events” for which no context was provided, the lawsuit says.
When Chicco contacted GM and OnStar, none of the people he spoke to could tell him why his data was shared with the two data analysis firms despite his never enrolling in OnStar and never consenting to the sharing of data. Chicco is suing for “erroneous reports of derogatory and negative driving information” without his consent and “significant emotional distress.”
In a similar case, a Seattle software company owner, Kelly Dahl, saw a 21 percent surge in the insurance premiums for his Chevy Bolt EV after OnStar sold driving data to LexisNexis. The report included extreme detail on the movements of his vehicle over the course of 640 individual trips, indicating the service was tracking Dahl’s trips, including start and ending times, distances driven, and more.
OnStar “customer data is no longer being shared with LexisNexis or Verisk” according to a statement from Kevin Kelly, a General Motors spokesman, in response to the situation. He added that “customer trust is a priority for us, and we are actively evaluating our privacy processes and policies.”
You can also read GM Authority’s guide to opting out of the automaker sharing your driving data with insurance companies for practical information on increasing your privacy.
The General is not unique in collecting detailed info on the movements and driving behavior of auto owners, with most major carmakers doing the same. Lawyer and business professor Erik Gordon predicts the unregulated and possibly invasive data-harvesting will soon lead to “a rash of lawsuits.”
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Comments
I applaud GM for doing the right thing, but it never should’ve happened in the first place. I certainly will not download any apps from the company for now.
GM did nothing worthy of applause, and anything a spokesperson says to the contrary is hollow PR trash.
I agree. Sometimes in pursuit of profit companies forget they have putting customers first in their ‘values’. Cudos to GM for recognizing the conflict and pulling the plug.
Meh, I don’t give them any kudos. They only stopped because they got caught.
Note that GM only said it would not be sharing information with THOSE TWO SPECIFIC COMPANIES.
Who else are they sharing driving information’s with and what data is being sold?
TOS for OnStar states no data will be sold. Hence the lawsuit.
They only “did the right thing”. when they were faced with a lawsuit.
I am happy to hear that GM has stopped selling our data without our consent.
I did go into the My Chevrolet ap and found the tracking was on, and I had never consented to any of that. So it has been shut off.
How can we join the lawsuit, has it reached Class Action status?
Not so fast! See lawyer Steve Lehto’s take on GM’s announcement:
this guy is a clown. TOS clearly says GM will not sell data. They did so, and in doing so they broke their own TOS. This guy talks like GM will sell data to others and has the ok to do so. No they do not, as per their own TOS. It is clear this so called “lawyer” speaks before he reads the TOS of OnStar.
Saw this video yesterday. Very interesting.
This is exactly why I drive an ‘06 Impala.
Onstar started in 1996 lol!!!
Onstar switched from analog to digital around 2009. An 06 cannot connect to the satellite with the old analog module. Chris should probably disconnect the module, because it will keep trying to connect and cause a battery draw.
How much you wanna bet that dealerships get a little slice of the data sale pie from GM when their salesman set it up in your new vehicle. Just saying’.
Contrary view here. Driving is not a right, it’s a privilege. More people are getting killed on the highway every year than were killed in the Vietnam war. I would like to see congested NE states in particular require the following: mandatory data collection and requirement the insurance companies use it in determining rates. It would vastly improve public safety. Because of factors largely beyond their control, law-enforcement simply doesn’t impact driver safety and behavior the way it used to. But almost everybody gets an insurance bill.
I think you’re missing the point here. GM PROFITED off this info. That’s the real problem here.
No offense “Adolph” but that’s insane. First of all, “hard stops” and “rapid acceleration” don’t say anything about how safe a driver you are. At-fault accidents and tickets, or the lack thereof, should be setting insurance rates. Furthermore, who is determining what a hard stop or hard acceleration is? There’s no context to any of the data and we as drivers have no idea what the standard is. Lastly these systems can be extremely sensitive. I drove my wife’s 24 Blazer yesterday and the forward collision detection was beeping at me, twice, for navigating curves in my subdivision which had parked cars on the street. My first thought is that it probably reported to OnStar that I was almost involved in a collision. So basically the damn car could eventually tell my insurance company (falsely) that I almost hit someone in my neighborhood every time we drive it. You can’t trust these systems to make these judgements.
I appreciate your concern, but your comparison is incorrect. Annual US highway deaths are around 49k, while service member deaths in Vietnam were around 58k.
Citizens still have some rights in this country and I’m not sure that mandatory data collection would pass constitutional muster. We just had a local incident where a concrete truck crossed the center line and had a grazing head-on crash with a school bus. One student was killed and the driver of another car was killed as well. Many kids were injured. As it turns out, the driver of the concrete truck had been smoking weed the night before and took cocaine before he started his drive. Roughly 13,500 people die each year in crashes with intoxicated drivers. Perhaps doing more to curtail impaired drivers would be more effective without violating people’s rights.
IMHO, we have more of a surveillance state in place currently than we need.
should driving on a track, not street count in the data, how do you manage that?
hopefully a class action so everyone can participate and be reimbursed
Whoopie to get your $1.13 after everything’s said and done.
When I purchased my 2023 C8 Z06 in March 2023, the Chevrolet app would operate on my Android phone. However, by the fall of 2023, it would no longer operate and the new version of the Chevrolet app would not even download to my phone which is an Android Galaxy S8. Therefore, I now have no way to opt out of the tracking which I never signed up for anyway.
I believe you can also manage it through the web. https://www.chevrolet.com/support/account
I have a 2014 Corvette and a 2019 GMC Terrain and I’ve never subscribed to On Star for either. Can GM still track my driving habits? I did have the Chevrolet and GMC apps on my phone but have since deleted both.
I have a 2014 Corvette and a 2019 GMC Terrain and I’ve never subscribed to On Star for either. Can GM still track my driving habits? I did have the Chevrolet and GMC apps on my phone but have since deleted both.
Be sure to read the fine print terms for any automotive app or OnStar because by using these services you have agreed to having your data shared with third parties.
Always remember…
The LARGE PRINT GIVETH AND the small taketh away!
Um yeah, you’re not being tracked now….
And GM’s Chief Digital Officer, appointed to grow the digital business, has “resigned”.
Let’s see if we understand this.
GM now requires an OnStar subscription to use your built in GPS Navigation.
GM was caught selling your data to who knows how many companies.
And now the new Chief Digital Officer has parted ways with GM.
Maybe we will get to use our Navigation systems again.
What a shame, we just ordered a new traverse a couple weeks ago. Then, this, it’s about as bad as it gets! This was to be our first general motors vehicle since 96. i’m not sure we can even go through with the sale at this point.. I was considering pulling the OnStar module, but I’m not even sure that would do it for me. apparently my life was too simple so I set out to purchase this thing.
Istvan,
I agree with that, these are some bad decisions on GM’s part in my opinion.
In addition to the driving data being sold, I have never had and won’t have a Google account, so the GM Built-in Google thing is another problem for me.
Neither the GM Build and Price process or the Purchase process told me you have to have a Google account.
I totally agree on the Google aspect, as far as I know it’s not required to purchase the vehicle. Not sure if anything will work without a sign in. most google services will work without signing in.
If I decide to go ahead with my purchase of the traverse, it will be an unconnected vehicle, I will not be creating an OnStar account and will still be disabling it. i’m not buying the vehicle for the stupid cruise or the Google Assistant !
very nice!
STOP BUYING THEIR CARS….
Restore a 1995 Corvette …….no telematics .
And GM is dropping Apple’s (the only silicon valley privacy advocate) CarPlay from future vehicles and instead integrating Orwellian, privacy-stealing Google services into their vehicles.
We all know what GM is about.
I just got my Verisk data report yesterday for my 2021 corvette. And it has way too much information.