General Motors said Friday it had stopped sharing detailed information about how people drive its cars with two data brokers who created risk profiles for the insurance industry.
The decision was made after a New York Times report published this month showed that GM had been sharing data on drivers’ mileage, braking, acceleration and speed with the insurance industry for years. Drivers have been enrolled – some say unknowingly – in OnStar Smart Driver, a feature available in GM’s internet-connected cars that collects data on how they drive and provides feedback and digital badges that indicate they’re driving well.
Some drivers said their insurance rates increased in consequence of intercepted data that GM shared with two brokers, LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk. The firms then sold the data to insurance firms.
As of Wednesday, “OnStar Smart Driver customer data is no longer shared with LexisNexis or Verisk,” GM spokeswoman Malorie Lucich said in an emailed statement. “Customer trust is our top priority and we are actively evaluating our privacy processes and policies.”
Romeo Chicco, a Florida man whose insurance rates nearly doubled after his Cadillac collected his driving data, filed a criticism this month searching for class-action status against GM, OnStar and LexisNexis.
An internal document reviewed by The Times shows that as of 2022, greater than eight million vehicles were covered by the Smart Driver system. An worker familiar with this system said the corporate’s annual revenue from Smart Driver is just a number of million dollars.
