GM to pay $220 million over sold driving data: what it means for you

General Motors has agreed to pay $220 million to settle claims from a coalition of 36 attorneys general that it sold drivers' behavior and location data to data brokers, who then sold it to insurers. The deal was announced on October 29, 2026, by the Washington Attorney General and the Oregon Department of Justice, which led the case together.

What happened

According to the Washington release, GM enrolled millions of drivers in its Smart Driver program between 2016 and 2024. The data included trip counts, trip start and end times, hard braking, rapid acceleration and speeding, along with location information. The states say GM sold that data to data brokers under contracts saying it would be used for insurance products. The brokers then sold it to insurers, which sometimes raised premiums based on it.

The states also allege that most drivers were signed up at the dealership while buying a car, sometimes with staff accepting the terms for the customer, according to the Oregon release. They say the OnStar app wrongly told more than 370,000 drivers they were not enrolled while GM kept collecting their data, and that GM later unenrolled them without telling them. The Washington release says those drivers' data stayed with brokers and insurers.

TechCrunch names LexisNexis and Verisk as data brokers involved. GM ended Smart Driver in 2024 after the New York Times reported on the practice, as The Record notes. Washington receives $12.3 million and Oregon more than $10.4 million of the total.

These are the states' allegations. A GM spokesperson told TechCrunch the agreement "addresses Smart Driver, a product we ended in 2024."

What the settlement requires

Under the deal, GM must get drivers' affirmative express consent before collecting or sharing driving and location data. It must also limit the driving data it collects, keep a privacy program that is checked internally and externally, and train and oversee dealerships so customers are not enrolled without approval, per the Washington Attorney General. TechCrunch reports that GM will no longer sell vehicle information linked to a person, their location or how they drive, though it may still share anonymized data with some partners.

Two things are missing from the releases and reports we read. None of them describe a payment or claims process for individual drivers; the money goes to the states. And none mention a requirement that brokers or insurers delete the data they already received. A separate Texas lawsuit from 2024 is still going and asks a court to order the collected data deleted, according to The Record.

What it means for you

If you drove a GM vehicle with OnStar between 2016 and 2024, your driving data may have been shared, even if the app told you that you were not enrolled. The settlement changes how GM must act from now on. It does not pull back data that was already sold, and that older data is the part worth acting on.

The case is also a plain example of how data you never typed into a form can reach a broker's files, and from there shape decisions about what you pay. Data brokers are rarely companies you deal with directly, which is why many people never ask them to delete anything.

What to do now

• Check the connected services and data sharing settings in your car and in the GM or OnStar app. TechCrunch reports that GM created a consumer Privacy Center where customers can manage permissions, though opting out may limit some features.
• Ask data brokers to delete what they hold on you. You can contact brokers yourself, or let Ghostifier send opt-out and deletion requests for you, including to data brokers on paid plans.
• If you live in California, the state's Delete Request and Opt-out Platform lets you send one request to more than 575 registered data brokers, according to the California Attorney General.
• Be careful with emails or texts that ask for payment or login details to "claim" money from this settlement. The official releases describe no claims process for individuals.

Ghostifier looks at who emails you and the subject lines, never the contents of your messages, to find companies that likely hold your data. It cannot tell whether GM shared your driving data in particular, and it does not replace the settings in your car.

This article explains public reports and is not legal advice. If you think your insurance price was affected, your state attorney general's office is a good place to ask.