U.S. Senators Urging FTC To Investigate GM Driving Data Sharing

Two U.S. senators have written to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to urge the consumer protection agency to begin an investigation of GM, Honda, Hyundai, and other automakers over their practice of sharing consumer data with data brokers like Verisk, leading to the sale of that information to insurance companies.

The two Democratic senators, Ron Wyden and Edward Markey, want the FTC “to hold the companies and their senior executives responsible” if GM and the other automakers broke the law with their data sharing.

The letter states that GM might have sold the data from 8 million vehicles to Verisk without the owners’ clear knowledge or consent, though the automaker did not confirm that or any other number. The opt-in to “OnStar Smart Driver,” the letter alleges, was not accompanied by any description of how the data would be collected or used.

Additionally, the Smart Driver opt-in was “bundled” with other agreements, so that owners had to agree to it in order to opt in to other services, such as theft alarm notifications or warnings about necessary repairs for the vehicle model. The senators argue that requiring agreement to Smart Driver data collection to get access to other useful service such as recall notices was coercive, describing it as “manipulative design techniques, known as dark patterns.”

GM allegedly confirmed to an inquiry by the senators that it shared location data about customer vehicles even for owners who chose not to opt into Smart Driver. No consent of any kind was given for The General’s revealing of vehicle location, which continued for years and provided specific locations for GM vehicles to third parties the company did not identify.

The automaker also confirmed that the only way to prevent its tracking of vehicle locations and providing that information to unidentified partners was by “disabling the car’s internet connection entirely.” While The General stopped sharing the data with some of the companies after the issue became public, it admitted to getting new partners who are currently receiving vehicle location data without owner knowledge or consent.

Honda was slightly more up-front than General Motors, though it place consent to data sharing deep in lengthy legal documents unlikely to be fully read by most vehicle owners. Hyundai, on the other hand, simply automatically enrolled owners in tracking as soon as the Internet was activated in the vehicle, with no notification or opt-in of any kind.

Earlier this year, The General ended its partnership with data brokers LexisNexis and Verisk after the sale of private data became known to the public. Texas launched an investigation into GM and five other automakers over the matter, despite denials by the company that the data sharing arrangement was in any way illegal.

The senators ended their letter by remarking that beyond issues of consent, “it is particularly insulting for automakers that are selling cars for tens of thousands of dollars to then squeeze out a few additional pennies of profit with consumers’ private data.”

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