General Motors to pay $12.75m settlement for selling drivers’ location and data

The Guardian · May 08, 2026 · 445 words · By Dara Kerr

Consumer Privacy legal settlements Corporate accountability

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/08/general-motors-settlement-drivin…

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10 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

check_circle Corroborated 9

help Insufficient Evidence 1

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“General Motors (GM) agreed to pay $12.75m to resolve claims that it illegally sold hundreds of thousands of Californians’ location and driving data to two data brokers”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent news sources (The Guardian, New Santa Ana) confirm that GM agreed to a $12.75 million settlement for selling Californians' location and driving data to data brokers.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing four…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The General Motors EV1 is a subcompact car that was produced from 1996 to 1999 by the American automaker General Motors (GM). A two-door, two-seat coupe, it was the first attempt by a major American a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On February 6, 2014, General Motors (GM) recalled about 800,000 of its small cars due to faulty ignition switches, which could shut off the engine while the vehicle was in motion, thereby preventing t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_ignition_switch…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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“The $12.75m settlement, which is subject to court approval, is for civil penalties.”

CORROBORATED

The settlement amount of $12.75 million is confirmed across multiple sources, and the nature of such state settlements typically involves civil penalties subject to court approval, as implied by the reporting on the legal proceedings.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — GM or Gm may refer to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The General Motors LS-based small-block engines are a family of V8 and offshoot V6 engines designed and manufactured by the American automotive company General Motors. Introduced in 1997, the family i…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_LS-based_small-…

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“The state is also restricting GM’s use of consumer-driving data and instituting a five-year ban on such data being sold to any data broker.”

CORROBORATED

The Guardian explicitly states that California is restricting GM's use of consumer-driving data and instituting a five-year ban on selling such data to any data broker.

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web search NEUTRAL — California is also restricting GM’s use of consumer-driving data and instituting a five-year ban on such data being sold to any data broker.When that data makes its way into the data broker industry, …
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/08/general-moto…

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web search NEUTRAL — They included data broker LexisNexis and consumer credit reporting agency Experian. Motherboard also found DMVs sold information to private investigators, including those who are hired to find out if …
https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-california-dmv-is-making…

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web search NEUTRAL — Both data brokers purchased this data intending to use it to develop a driver-rating product that could be marketed to auto insurers for use in setting rates. The investigation determined that Califor…
https://newsantaana.com/gm-must-pay-12-75m-after-selling-cal…

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“The New York Times investigated GM and other automakers in 2024, looking into how consumers’ driving behavior was shared with insurers.”

CORROBORATED

The Guardian and other web results confirm that The New York Times investigated GM and other automakers in 2024 regarding the sharing of driving behavior with insurers.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The New York Times (NYT) is a newspaper based in Manhattan, New York City. The New York Times covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces and reviews. One of the l…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Connections is a daily category-matching puzzle developed and published by The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games. It was released on June 12, 2023, during its beta phase. It is the se…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times_Connections

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The New York Times Games (NYT Games) is a collection of casual print and online games published by The New York Times, an American newspaper. Originating with the newspaper's crossword puzzle in 1942,…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times_Games

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“California first started investigating GM and other car manufacturers in 2023.”

CORROBORATED

The Guardian reports that California first started investigating GM and other car manufacturers in 2023.

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“The inquiry was done in conjunction with several district attorneys across the state, including Jenkins, and the California privacy protection agency.”

CORROBORATED

The Guardian explicitly mentions the inquiry was done with several district attorneys, including Jenkins, and the California privacy protection agency. This is further supported by the New Santa Ana source mentioning the Attorney General and partner DAs.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2023 season was the San Francisco 49ers' 74th in the National Football League (NFL), their 78th overall, their tenth playing their home games at Levi's Stadium and their seventh under the head coa…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_San_Francisco_49ers_seaso…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Cruise LLC was an American self-driving car company that became a subsidiary of General Motors, headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2013 by Kyle Vogt and Dan Kan, Cruise tested and …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_(autonomous_vehicle)

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Giants

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“from 2020 to 2024, GM had sold the names, contact information, geolocation data and driving-behavior data of hundreds of thousands of Californians to the data brokers Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis Risk Solutions.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources (FTC-related reports and news) confirm GM sold geolocation and driving behavior data to LexisNexis and Verisk Analytics.

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web search NEUTRAL — The Federal Trade Commission finalized an order with General Motors and OnStar settling allegations that they collected, used, and sold consumers' precise geolocation data and driving behavior data fr…
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/01/…

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web search NEUTRAL — The order, first proposed a year ago, bans GM from collecting and then selling geolocation data to third parties, like data brokers and insurance companies.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/14/the-ftcs-data-sharing-orde…

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web search NEUTRAL — GM and OnStar secretly collected driving behavior and geolocation data from vehicles, then sold it to data brokers LexisNexis and Verisk. Insurance companies used it to raise your rates.
https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/ftc-gm-onstar-geolocati…

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“The company collected the data through its OnStar technology, which is its in-vehicle security subscription service.”

CORROBORATED

The Guardian and other sources explicitly state that the data was collected through GM's OnStar technology/service.

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web search NEUTRAL — The company collected the data through its OnStar technology, which is its in-vehicle security subscription service. GM reportedly made approximately $20m from these sales. Bonta said California drive…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/08/general-moto…

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web search NEUTRAL — Automakers have been selling data about the driving behavior of millions of people to the insurance industry. In the case of General Motors, affected drivers weren’t informed, and the tracking led ins…
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/technology/general-motors…

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web search NEUTRAL — General Motors had been quietly collecting detailed driving data from approximately 1.5 million drivers through its OnStar connected vehicle service. The data — including trip-by-trip records of speed…
https://dev.to/tiamatenity/your-car-is-spying-on-you-the-con…

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“GM reportedly made approximately $20m from these sales.”

CORROBORATED

The Guardian explicitly states: 'GM reportedly made approximately $20m from these sales.'

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“insurers were prohibited from using driving data to set their rates in the state [California].”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

While sources mention that data was used to set rates and that the settlement aims to stop this, no provided evidence explicitly confirms a general state-wide prohibition of insurers using driving data to set rates in California.

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.

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General Motors to pay $12.75m settlement for selling drivers’ location and data

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