Cases where companies and other entities are held accountable for their misuse of people’s information are encouraging, though. Surprisingly, despite the lack of comprehensive privacy laws at the federal level, they can lead to big payouts for those involved.
General Motors, for one, just had to pay a whopping $220 million for logging and then selling valuable driver data — without drivers’ knowledge or consent — to data brokerages, which later sold it to insurance companies.
Some feel the tracking was akin to outright “spying” and “scary levels of surveillance”.
Hundreds of pages of granular driving data saved
One Michigan man, Ryan Bates, managed to get more than 200 pages of his own driving data, which had been documented and retained by his car through OnStar. It was then sold to data brokerage LexisNexis, and he’s still in the dark about who exactly — insurance companies included — may have acquired it thereafter.
The report outlined specific details, such as every time he “braked a little bit” or “accelerated a little fast.” It was so detailed that it had him wondering “who owns who … do I own the car, or does the car own me?”
“When the car’s selling this much information to a data broker, it’s like I’m the product,” he added.
The legal case against GM was launched by 36 attorneys general, representing drivers in their respective states. According to an Oct. 29 release from one of those involved, driver stats were sold to insurance companies, impacting customers’ policies.
“[GM] illegally sold consumers’ private driver behavior data and location information to third parties, including data brokers, who then sold the data to insurance companies. For many consumers, this data was used by insurance companies in part to set insurance rates,” the Washington Attorney General’s office wrote.
The release added that some drivers were also signed up for Smart Driver, an integrated program that OnStar uses to track driver habits, either unknowingly or without consenting to the full terms and conditions.
“GM used one sign-up process for drivers to enroll in Smart Driver along with OnStar services,” the release stated. “In many cases, dealership employees allegedly accepted terms and conditions on behalf of customers without their consent.”
