General Motors stops sharing driving behavior with data brokers

General Motors said Friday it had stopped sharing details of how people drove their cars with two data brokers that created risk profiles for the insurance industry.

The decision followed a New York Times report this month that GM had been sharing data on drivers’ mileage, braking, acceleration and speed with the insurance industry for years. The drivers were enrolled — some unknowingly, they said — in OnStar Smart Driver, a feature in GM’s Internet-connected cars that collected data about how the car was driven and promised feedback and digital badges for good driving behavior.

Some drivers said their insurance rates increased as a result of the data collected, which GM shared with two brokers, LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk. The companies then sold the data to insurance companies.

As of Wednesday, “OnStar Smart Driver customer data is no longer shared with LexisNexis or Verisk,” GM spokeswoman Malorie Lucich said in an emailed statement. “Customer trust is a priority for us and we are actively reviewing our privacy processes and policies.”

Romeo Chicco, a Florida man whose insurance rates nearly doubled after his Cadillac collected his driving records, filed a complaint this month seeking class-action status against GM, OnStar and LexisNexis.

An internal document reviewed by The Times found that more than eight million vehicles were included in Smart Driver as of 2022. An employee familiar with the program said the company’s annual revenue from Smart Driver was in the low millions of dollars.