General Motors settles lawsuit over selling customer driving data

A two-year legal battle between General Motors and California prosecutors, led by Attorney General Rob Bonta, over the alleged misuse of customer driving data has concluded, with GM agreeing to pay $12.75 million in penalties. Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Vote for your favorite creator today! In a press release announcing the settlement, the AG alleges that GM sold "the names, contact information, geolocation data, and driving behavior data of hundreds of thousands of Californians" to data brokers, including Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis Risk Solutions. And, as the statement points out, "If you know the precise location of a person’s car, then you know an enormous amount of personal, sensitive information about that person — their home, work, children’s school, place of worship." The original facts of the case were uncovered by The New York Times back in 2024, where the focus was on whether insurance companies were using this driving data to charge some customers higher insurance rates. But the attorney general's investigation concluded that "California drivers were not directly impacted by GM’s sales of data," because under California's strict insurance laws, "insurers are prohibited

May 10, 2026 → May 11, 2026