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GM’s OnStar side hustle hit a wall
General Motors just agreed to cough up $12.75 million to settle California allegations that it illegally sold OnStar driver data to brokers without customer consent. Translation: the car company that wanted to make money from your driving habits is now paying for the privilege of getting caught.
What the state says happened
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said GM retained and sold location and driving data from hundreds of thousands of Californians. That included stuff like:
- rapid acceleration
- hard braking
- speeding
- precise geolocation
According to Bonta’s office, the data ended up with brokers including Verisk and LexisNexis Risk Solutions, generating roughly $20 million for GM.
Why investors should care
The cash penalty is annoying, but the bigger issue is the headache that comes with it. GM also has to stop selling driver data to consumer reporting agencies for five years, delete retained data within 180 days unless it gets explicit consent, and ask the brokers to purge the info too.
That’s a pretty clear reminder that data businesses can turn into legal booby traps when customers feel like they’re the product and nobody sent the memo.
The annoying part for GM
GM says the settlement addresses Smart Driver, a product it discontinued in 2024. Fine — but regulators clearly weren’t done with the story. The deal also follows a prior FTC order already barring GM and OnStar from selling certain data to consumer reporting agencies, so this wasn’t exactly GM’s first trip to the privacy rodeo.
Big picture: GM isn’t just dealing with cars, tariffs, and EV drama anymore. It’s also learning that in 2026, your driving data can be as sensitive — and as expensive — as the car itself.