GM has been dealing with litigation regarding the sale of OnStar driving data for more than a year now. According to CarComplaints, the automaker is calling a 627-page lawsuit “scattershot” and argues the “claims and theories are unclear or lack merit.”
The case in question asserts 65 separate counts brought by 47 plaintiffs in 27 states. The “claims and theories” in question accuse GM of exploiting driver data by illegally selling information to third parties in a breach of privacy. The driving data includes “[g]eolocation, route history, driving schedule, fuel or charging levels, hard braking events, hard acceleration events, tailgating, time spent idle, speeds over 80 miles per hour, vehicle speed, average speed, late night driving, [and] driver attention,” according to the lawsuit.
This data collection is part of a GM OnStar program called Smart Driver, which works like OBD dongles insurance companies use to monitor driving behavior and adjust rates accordingly. General Motors says the program is “designed to encourage safe driving skills by collecting certain driving data, such as hard braking.” The class action suit fires back by saying OnStar-equipped models from 2014-2024 are “corporate surveillance machines.”
The crux of GM’s argument for lawful data collection is that said collection was disclosed, and the drivers who signed up for the program consented to the data collection. General Motors adds that driving a state-registered vehicle on public roads “cannot form the basis for any privacy-based claim.”
The General also suggested that dealers may have deceived customers about the nature of the Smart Driver program, which would shield the corporate entity of General Motors from liability. “Plaintiffs do not plead any particular pre-purchase communications they had with GM during which GM made misrepresentations. Instead, they rely on the allegedly deceptive conduct of independent dealers, which cannot be attributed to GM.”
More than 20 class action lawsuits were filed against GM, which were consolidated into multi-district litigation called “IN RE: Consumer Vehicle Driving Data Tracking Litigation.” The suit accuses General Motors of “actions of secretly intercepting, using, and disclosing Driving Data invaded privacy rights,” enriching the Detroit automaker while some customers’ insurance rates went up.
Comments
GM should not be collecting the data in the first place. In other words, GM should not have any data that could be sold. Secondly, the data GM claims insurance companies use to determine rates is open to interpretation.
Insurance companies are going to claim hard breaking and going to fast are indications of bad driving. I 100% disagree. Hard breaking is not me driving like an idiot. Hard breaking is me paying attention while driving to avoid some other idiot-driver’s action. Going to fast is not me driving recklessly and being a danger to others. Driving to fast (at a safe distance) is me paying attention to existing traffic conditions and matching the speed of the majority of the vehicles on the road to avoid being trapped in traffic that is weaving in out and out lanes jockeying for position.
Hard breaking and going to fast is me being a safe driver that avoids getting into accidents.
Don’t forget about the metric that was keeping track of the percentage of times that you drove without a seatbelt. I always use my seatbelt, but not when I am moving the truck around my property or when the service tech is moving my truck to and from the service bay. When I caught the program, it said that I drove 97% of the time with a seatbelt along with the hard acceleration and hard braking. Being that I do a lot of highway driving, there is fast acceleration on the onramp and hard braking on the exit ramps. All of that information was sold to the insurance companies via LexisNexis.
braking
Doh. Yep.
Of course they say that. And I hope they lose every single one of those suits.
Even if it was legal, it was a serious breach of their customers’ trust that GM wasn’t tracking them and then tattling on them like a 3rd grader on the school playground.
Nobody likes a tattletale.
“The crux of GM’s argument for lawful data collection is that said collection was disclosed, and the drivers who signed up for the program consented to the data collection.”
1000% Bullsh*t. When I bought my ’23 Sierra, the Smart Driver Program was automatically set to active by default. No disclosure from OnStar during the OnStar Welcome Call, no disclosure from the salesman, NOTHING. I found the Smart Driver Opt-In by mistake when looking through the menus on the GMC/OnStar app…but not before my insurance rates jumped. I hope GM/OnStar pay through the nose for these lawsuits.
GM’s message to GM Dealerships is clear: You are not one of us and you can’t be trusted!
“Instead, they rely on the allegedly deceptive conduct of independent dealers, which cannot be attributed to GM.”
My insurance rates have climbed without any claims.
GM’s message to their customers is clear: Customers don’t have any privacy rights
General Motors adds that driving a state-registered vehicle on public roads “cannot form the basis for any privacy-based claim.”
Also imbedded in the radio software is driving habits permission which is activated without knowledge.
Should not be collecting ANY data! Period!
Can OnSpy be removed from your vehicle. I’m sure a mechanic or IT person smart enough can disconnect the spying device.
Yes, There is a way to take the purple FARCA connection at the back of the OnStar unit and replace it with a universal FARCA connection with a 10 ohm 2W resistor. Other functions like the compass and Apple Car Play still work. I can’t post urls here, but you should be able to find them on the web.
Correction: 50 ohm 2 W resistor and FAKRA Z to SMA Female connector.
Both parts can be found on Amazon.
1. Proxicast FAKRA Z to SMA Female interseries adapter – Waterblue
2. Coaxial Terminators SMA Male Connector 50 ohm 2W SMA terminator
“LONG LIVE BIG BROTHER! LONG LIVE BIG BROTHER! LONG LIVE BIG BROTHER!”…..GM says that they are good and decent people that allow the dealers to saddle you with ridiculous finance rates for your own good. This will help you control your new car fever. In return they only require that that you kneel before the almighty ONSTAR and allow your personal driving habits be sent directly to the authorities.
Another Barra blunder. At one time, she was giddy about how much GM was going to make off of subscription services. It stands to reason that the only reason GM did this was to make money by purposefully collecting and selling its customers’ data. This is shameful and I hope the company and its leaders are held accountable and punished severely.
GM is changing their defense. Last year their spokesman claimed this driver program could reduce costs for their customers. I quote, “The goal of these programs is always to reduce the total cost of insurance, and millions of GM customers have saved on their car insurance because of such services.”
I see nowhere in GM’s defense that this program saved costs. I’ve yet to hear or see one case in which the insurance companies reduced rates because of this program. When all you’re analyzing is “hard braking” and “hard acceleration” and not “soft braking” or “soft acceleration”, then it is impossible for this program to reduce rates.
It’s like one of those shell game scams. Sure you can find the right cup that has the ball, but they’ll never show the ball. You can brake gently and drive as safe as you want. They’re not recording it.
GM is in my opinion wrong on both of these points:
“The crux of GM’s argument for lawful data collection is that said collection was disclosed, and the drivers who signed up for the program consented to the data collection. General Motors adds that driving a state-registered vehicle on public roads “cannot form the basis for any privacy-based claim.””
For the first point the salesman set up the On-star stating that GM makes them do this for their clients. Onstar was only active on my vehicle for a 1 month trial period, so I have never authorized GM to do any data collection.
On the second point Driving a personal vehicle, bought and paid for with my money certainly would not constitute GM’s ability to collect personal, and or driving data on me or my family. Nowhere does my State or any other state that I drive in ask me for permission to collect my data and share it with anyone.
I would also add that if GM doesn’t think that what they are doing is illegal, why did they cut ties, and stop selling data to Lexus Nexus and Verisk?
And although not part of all the class action lawsuits, GM’s connection to Google with their “Google Built-in”. should also be investigated to determine what data Google is sharing with the Chinese Communist Party.
I, 100% of the time, advised my customers to say NO to the OnStar insurance program.
Throwing the Dealers under the bus !
How do you sleep at night, Mary ?
Money. That’s the only reason for this. Got to add to Mary’s bonus for doing all the wrong things.
My local news had a story on this. A Camaro owner saw her premiums increase by 80 percent after GM allegedly sold her information to data brokers that apparently then sold it to her insurance company. She claimed to have had no accidents and no tickets, nothing to justify the sudden increase. The data that GM allegedly sold though showed 603 events from the OnStar computer system. Those “events” were described as acceleration events, high-speed events, and hard break events.
The irony perhaps is this: GM built and sold her a performance car and profited from the sale. Then they made money off of her again, according to allegations, for using the performance capabilities of the vehicle.
Perhaps it’s best then that GM dropped the Camaro. Maybe the Corvette needs to go too and all those WTF modes on their EVs might just be another money-making ploy. They put that feature in vehicles, tempt consumers to try it and then as soon as they do, the company sells that “event” to the data brokers. The GM customer in theory would then pay dearly after the company tattles on them.
I can’t believe the Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet, all-American company that I grew up loving has fallen so far as to engage in the practices they are accused of today.
It’s just as I have been telling you in many of my posts to GM Authority… This is why you should not be driving a vehicle newer than, say, 2009 or so. Amazing how many things you do not need to deal with by simply following that rule! Most important technology was “mature” by then, the new LS engines were not yet convoluted with AFM/cylinder deactivation, and they were mated to good, strong 4-speed automatic transmissions. No “infotainment systems” or touch screens with the problems they introduced, and if you have one of the few models with OnStar, it was the first generation that relied on Verizon’s analog cellular network (now retired), not sophisticated enough to gather and transmit car/driver data! Score still ANOTHER advantage for the 2001-2009 vehicles!!!
On Star Data collecting is something GM should stop. A BIG lawsuit is the only thing corporations understand. Selling it to LexisNexis is bad news. Check what the Better Business Bureau has to say as well as other reviews.
Buh, buh, buh Mary’s a woman….or something according to the Mary-can-do-no-wrong bootlickers on this forum.
I bought a 2024 Colorado payed good money for it and as I was just about to pull out they said we had to set up ON STAR AND NOT THINKING I did! then I heard about all this and have canceled it ! Not sure if I like someone looking over my shoulder!!!
Is the spying device disconnected in Mary’s vehicle…….or does she drive a Hyundai or Toyota?
The article says that GM claims that owners signed up for the Smart Driver program, which is a complete lie.
Not long after I bought my 21 Sierra Denali I started getting emails from GM pushing me to sign up for the Smart Driver program “to save on insurance”. I did not sign up for it and went into the My GMC app to see where it was and make sure it wasn’t activated. I continued to receive emails pushing it and I continually deleted them. Not long after the emails stopped coming I was in the My GMC app to look at something else and saw that Smart Driver was activated. I didn’t turn it on, and never would have as I have no interest in GM or anyone else tracking my driving habits or knowing when I might be travelling. I immediately turned it off and checked to make sure it was off for a couple months afterwards.
Of course we were tracked by OnStar who are they trying to BS? I kind-of benefited from the driving surveillance when I traded in my 2023 Bolt and purchased a 2024 Equinox EV. My insurance rates went down. That normally doesn’t happen to 74 year old males.
It was a bit infectious driving the Bolt and receiving the “merit” points and watching them accumulate on the MyChevy app. Kinda like playing a game that actually unknowingly helped me out.
The reason folks are upset is they’re bad drivers and rates went up, the rest are happy and not even looking at this subject. That said I never activated because I don’t know if it would raise or lower rates. Rates have been going up because of inflation etc. so it’s hard top say what all factors affected your rate. Insurance is playing it safe by charging as if you are just a bit worse than average for your known history. Half of people are overpaying (better than the average driver) and half are underpaying (worse than average driver). So if it went up for you, it’s more likely to go down for me.