In its continued concentration on the collection and use of consumers’ precise geolocation, on January 16, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled with General Motors (GM) over allegations that it collected, used, and sold drivers’ precise geolocation and driving behavior data from millions of vehicles—data that can be used to set insurance rates—without adequately notifying consumers and obtaining their affirmative consent.

The FTC accepted the proposed order for public comment, which will be open for 30 days.

The complaint against GM alleged that it “used a misleading enrollment process to get consumers to sign up for its OnStar connected vehicle service and the OnStar Smart Driver feature. GM failed to clearly disclose that it collected consumers’ precise geolocation and driving behavior data and sold it to third parties, including consumer reporting agencies, without consumers’ consent.” According to the complaint, GM collected driver data through OnStar as often as every three seconds. As in the previous four cases in 2024, the FTC alleges that “tracking and collecting geolocation data can be extremely [privacy-invasive], revealing some of the most intimate details about a person’s life, such as whether they visited a hospital or other medical facility, and expose their daily routines.” The proposed order, if accepted, “prohibits GM and OnStar from misrepresenting information about how they collect, use and share consumers’ location and driver behavior data.” In addition, the order prohibits them from disclosing consumers’ geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies for five years; requires them to obtain affirmative express consent from consumers before collecting connected vehicle data; allows consumers to obtain and delete their data; and allows consumers to limit data collection from their vehicles.