GM agrees to pay $12.75M in California driver privacy settlement

通用汽车同意支付 1275 万美元就加州驾驶员隐私诉讼达成和解

General Motors has reached a privacy-related settlement with a group of law enforcement agencies led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Back in 2024, The New York Times reported that automakers including GM were sharing information about their customers’ driving behavior with insurance companies, and that some customers were concerned that their insurance rates had gone up as a result.

通用汽车已与以加州总检察长罗伯·邦塔（Rob Bonta）为首的一组执法机构就隐私相关问题达成和解。2024 年，《纽约时报》曾报道称，包括通用汽车在内的汽车制造商一直在与保险公司共享其客户的驾驶行为信息，一些客户担心这会导致他们的保险费率上涨。

The settlement announcement from Bonta’s office similarly alleges that GM sold “the names, contact information, geolocation data, and driving behavior data of hundreds of thousands of Californians” to Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which are both data brokers. Bonta’s office further alleges that this data was collected through GM’s OnStar program, and that the company made roughly $20 million from data sales.

邦塔办公室发布的和解公告同样指控通用汽车将“数十万加州人的姓名、联系方式、地理位置数据和驾驶行为数据”出售给了数据经纪商 Verisk Analytics 和 LexisNexis Risk Solutions。邦塔办公室进一步指控称，这些数据是通过通用汽车的 OnStar 项目收集的，该公司通过出售这些数据获利约 2000 万美元。

However, Bonta’s office also said the data did not lead to increased insurance prices in California, “likely because under California’s insurance laws, insurers are prohibited from using driving data to set insurance rates.” As part of the settlement, GM has agreed to pay $12.75 million in civil penalties and to stop selling driving data to any consumer reporting agencies for five years, Bonta’s office said.

不过，邦塔办公室也表示，这些数据并未导致加州的保险价格上涨，“这很可能是因为根据加州的保险法，保险公司被禁止使用驾驶数据来设定保险费率。”邦塔办公室表示，作为和解协议的一部分，通用汽车已同意支付 1275 万美元的民事罚款，并在五年内停止向任何消费者报告机构出售驾驶数据。

GM has also agreed to delete any driver data that it still retains within 180 days (unless it obtains consent from customers), and to request that Lexis and Verisk delete that data. “General Motors sold the data of California drivers without their knowledge or consent and despite numerous statements reassuring drivers that it would not do so,” Bonta said in a statement, adding that the settlement “requires General Motors to abandon these illegal practices and underscores the importance of the data minimization in California’s privacy law — companies can’t just hold on to data and use it later for another purpose.”

通用汽车还同意在 180 天内删除其仍保留的任何驾驶员数据（除非获得客户同意），并要求 Lexis 和 Verisk 删除这些数据。邦塔在一份声明中表示：“通用汽车在未告知或未经加州驾驶员同意的情况下出售了他们的数据，尽管此前曾多次向驾驶员保证不会这样做。”他补充说，该和解协议“要求通用汽车放弃这些非法行为，并强调了加州隐私法中数据最小化原则的重要性——公司不能仅仅为了以后将其用于其他目的而保留数据。”

GM had previously settled with the Federal Trade Commission over its data sales, with a final order banning General Motors and OnStar from selling certain data with consumer reporting agencies.

通用汽车此前已就其数据销售问题与美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC）达成和解，最终命令禁止通用汽车和 OnStar 向消费者报告机构出售特定数据。

GM told Reuters that the settlement “addresses Smart Driver, a product we discontinued in 2024, and reinforces steps we’ve taken to strengthen our privacy practices.”

通用汽车向路透社表示，该和解协议“针对的是我们在 2024 年停用的 Smart Driver 产品，并加强了我们为强化隐私保护措施所采取的步骤。”