Texas Sues General Motors for Collecting and Selling Driver Data

Business|Texas Sues G.M. Over Collection and Selling of Driver Data

The state of Texas sued General Motors on Tuesday, accusing the automaker of collecting detailed driving data on 16 million drivers and selling it to insurance companies without their consent.

“Millions of American drivers wanted to buy a car, not a comprehensive surveillance system that unlawfully records information about every drive they take and sells their data to any company willing to pay for it,” said Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general.

A G.M. spokeswoman said the company had been “in discussions” with the attorney general’s office and was reviewing the complaint. “We share the desire to protect consumers’ privacy,” she said.

The lawsuit followed an investigation Mr. Paxton opened after The New York Times reported that General Motors and other automakers had collected and sold to insurance companies extensive records on customers’ driving behaviors, including data on the start and end times of their trips and instances of hard braking and speeding. Many customers’ insurance premiums soared because of the data contained in those reports.

General Motors said in March, shortly after The Times report was published, that it would stop sharing such information with data brokers.

Texas’ complaint against General Motors and its OnStar subsidiary says that beginning in 2015, the automaker sold its customers’ driving data to outside vendors, including LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Verisk Analytics and Wejo. Those companies then calculated a “driving score” for each customer and sold that information to insurers. G.M. collected millions of dollars from these deals through upfront payments and ongoing royalties, according to the legal filing.

LexisNexis and Verisk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wejo filed for bankruptcy in 2023.

Customers were typically enrolled in the data collection program at General Motors dealerships, through what the lawsuit described as a “deceptively designed sales flow to ensure that customers would sign up for G.M.’s products and unwittingly be enrolled in G.M.’s Driving Data collection scheme.”

The company’s data collection disclosures were buried in a 50-page document that said the gathered information would be used for purposes like improving G.M. cars’ safety and maintenance. Customers who refused to enroll were shown messages warning them that some of their vehicles’ safety features would be deactivated.

The lawsuit, filed in a state district court in Montgomery County, accuses G.M. of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and seeks a court order instructing the automaker to destroy all of the driving data it has collected. The state is also seeking restitution for affected customers, including 1.8 million Texans.

Two Democratic senators — Ron Wyden of Oregon and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts — sent a letter last month to Lina Khan, the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, urging her agency to investigate how the auto industry collects and shares customers’ data.