USAGeneral Motors will pay $220 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a coalition of 36 attorneys general over driving data from its Smart Driver feature. The states allege that GM sold drivers’ location and driving-behaviour data to data brokers without their consent, and that the brokers passed it to insurers. The settlement was announced on 29 October 2026.
What the states allege
According to the Michigan attorney general’s office, GM enrolled millions of drivers in Smart Driver between 2016 and 2024. It told them their data would not go to insurers without express consent. The coalition found that GM sold the data to brokers under contracts that specified insurance use. The brokers named in the New York Times report that first exposed the practice were LexisNexis and Verisk.
Most customers signed up at the dealership when they bought their car, and the states allege that dealership staff in many cases accepted the terms on the customer’s behalf. The OnStar app also told more than 370,000 drivers they were not enrolled in Smart Driver when they were, according to the attorneys general. The data covered how often a person drove, when each trip started and ended, hard braking and acceleration, and speeding.
What GM has agreed to
GM must get drivers’ express consent before it collects or discloses driving and location data, limit the driving data it collects, and run a data privacy programme. The deal adds internal and external assessments of that programme and oversight and training at dealerships, and TechCrunch reports the third-party assessment is new compared with GM’s earlier agreements with California and the FTC. The FTC finalised its own order against GM and OnStar in January.
The $220 million goes to the participating states. Michigan’s share is $7,205,319. The settlement provides no restitution to drivers, and a nationwide private class action seeking money for them is still pending.
What GM says
“This agreement addresses Smart Driver, a product we ended in 2024,” GM said in a statement. GM says it will no longer sell vehicle information that can be linked to an individual, a car’s location or how someone drives. It may still pass anonymised data to research partners such as universities for work on city infrastructure and road safety.
