The FTC stated its grievance declared that “GM used a misleading enrollment process to get consumers to sign up for its OnStar connected vehicle service and the OnStar Smart Driver feature.” Lina Khan, who remains in her last week as FTC chair, stated that “GM monitored and sold people’s precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds.”

Settlement not rather completed

The proposed settlement was authorized in a closed conference by the FTC’s 3 Democrats, with the 2 Republicans tape-recorded as missing. The pending contract will go through public remark for 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, and a last FTC choice will be made under the Trump administration.

In addition to place information, the GM/FTC settlement covers “radio listening data regarding specific content, channel, or station; hard braking, hard acceleration, hard cornering, crossing of a designated high-speed threshold, seat belt usage, or late-night driving; and trip time and duration for such events.” GM and OnStar consented to erase information gathered before the settlement and ask 3rd parties to erase information formerly shown them.

GM likewise “must allow consumers to disable the collection of Location Data from their Vehicles to the extent the Vehicle is equipped with the necessary technology.”

GM provided a news release on the settlement. “Last year, we discontinued Smart Driver across all GM vehicles, unenrolled all customers, and ended our third-party telematics relationships with LexisNexis and Verisk,” GM stated. “In September, we consolidated many of our US privacy statements into a single, simpler statement as part of our broader work to keep raising the bar on privacy… As part of the agreement, GM will obtain affirmative customer consent to collect, use, or disclose certain types of connected vehicle data (with exceptions for certain purposes).”

Affirmative approval is not needed for functions such as offering motorist information to emergency situation responders, reacting to customer-initiated interactions, adhering to federal government demands and legal requirements, and examining item quality or security issues. While the restriction on sharing driving information lasts just 5 years, the general settlement would remain in location for 20 years.