Texas sues General Motors over car data tracking

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing General Motors over the company’s location data sales, claiming that the automaker violated millions of Texans’ privacy rights.

The lawsuit , filed in the state district court of Montgomery County, Texas, on Tuesday, alleges GM of misleading drivers into sharing their data with the company, which it then sold to data brokers.

“General Motors deceptively collected scores of data points from consumers about their driving habits, monetized that data by selling it to other commercial actors, and permitted those actors to use the ill-gotten data to make adverse decisions when dealing with those same consumers,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that the data collected came from more than 1.8 million Texans and 14 million vehicles. This data was used by companies to assign risk scores to drivers that affected their insurance rates without their knowledge, according to the lawsuit.

This is the first state enforcement against an automaker for data privacy sales.

“We’ve been in discussions with the Attorney General’s office and are reviewing the complaint. We share the desire to protect consumers’ privacy,” a GM spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

In June, Paxton opened an investigation on multiple car companies regarding their collection and sale of drivers’ data, raising concerns about people’s information being sold to insurance companies.

Cars collect an extensive amount of data on drivers, including their location, their contacts and their driving patterns. This data can be used for city planning purposes, but it is also used for targeted advertising and to adjust insurance rates.

GM has been embroiled in data privacy concerns after the New York Times revealed in March that the company shared drivers’ data with data brokers, who then provided the information to insurance companies.

A follow-up investigation from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in July accused General Motors of failing to obtain proper consent from drivers before sharing their data and accused the company of manipulating users for its data collection.