General Motors Agrees to Pay $12.5 Million to Settle California Driver Data Sales Claims

General Motors has agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle claims that the automaker illegally sold location and driving data of hundreds of thousands of Californians, state officials said Friday. The settlement is the largest California Consumer Privacy Act penalty in the state's history.

The act gives California consumers the right to request that businesses disclose what data they collect. Consumers can also opt out of the sharing or sale of their personal information and request that businesses delete their data. Investigators found that from 2020 to 2024, GM sold driver data including names, contact information, location data and driving behavior data to data brokers Verisk Analytics, Inc.

and LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The data came from a driver's use of OnStar, which is owned by GM and provides roadside assistance, navigation and other services.

Under the settlement, which still needs court approval, the automaker would delete any driving data the company kept within 180 days and request that the two data brokers do the same. The company would also stop selling driving data to consumer reporting agencies for five years.

It must develop a privacy program that includes assessing and mitigating the risks of data collected from OnStar. The settlement follows action by the Federal Trade Commission in 2025 that barred GM and OnStar from disclosing location and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies for five years.

The settlement is an example of how automakers are facing more scrutiny over allegations that they share driver data with the insurance industry. California has a law that bars insurers from using driving data to set rates. The California Privacy Protection Agency in 2023 started investigating the privacy practices of connected cars.

As the state was looking into the automakers, The New York Times reported in 2024 that GM was sharing consumer driving behavior with insurance companies. Nationwide, GM reportedly made roughly $20 million from selling data to Verisk and LexisNexis. The state's privacy protection agency has taken action against other automakers before.

Ford Motor Company was fined $375,703 in March and Honda was fined $632,500 in 2025 for privacy violations. Various district attorneys throughout the state, including in Los Angeles and San Francisco, were involved in the investigation and settlement.