The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finalized an order with General Motors and its subsidiary OnStar following allegations that the companies collected, used, and sold precise geolocation and driving behavior data from millions of vehicles without adequately informing consumers or obtaining their explicit consent.
The settlement prohibits General Motors LLC, General Motors Holdings LLC, and OnStar, LLC from sharing certain consumer data with consumer reporting agencies. The companies must also implement measures to improve transparency and provide consumers with more control over how their connected vehicle data is collected, used, and disclosed.
The FTC’s complaint, initially announced in January 2025, stated that GM employed a misleading enrollment process for its OnStar connected vehicle service and the OnStar Smart Driver feature. According to the FTC, GM did not clearly inform consumers that it was collecting detailed location and driving behavior information through these services. The agency further alleged that this information was then sold to third parties without consumer consent.
As part of the final order approved by the Commission, GM faces a five-year ban on disclosing consumers’ geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies. The FTC described this measure as appropriate given what it called “GM’s egregious betrayal of consumers’ trust.” Over the 20-year duration of the order, GM will be required to:
- Obtain clear affirmative consent from consumers before collecting or sharing connected vehicle data (with exceptions such as providing location information to emergency responders).
- Offer all U.S. consumers a way to request copies of their data or seek its deletion.
- Allow consumers to disable collection of precise geolocation data if their vehicle technology permits.
- Provide options for opting out of geolocation and driver behavior data collection except in limited cases.
The Commission voted unanimously (2-0) in favor of approving both the final order and complaint.
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