GM Pays California Over Driver Data Sales

General Motors will pay $12.75 million to settle California claims that it sold drivers’ location and driving data without their knowledge or consent.

California attorney general Rob Bonta announced the agreement Friday, saying the automaker shared data from hundreds of thousands of Californians with two data brokers. State officials say the information included precise location details and driving data that could reveal the daily routines and movements of drivers. The case lands at the center of a widening fight over how much car companies know about their customers — and what they do with that information.

“General Motors sold the data of California drivers without their knowledge or consent.”

The sharpest allegation cuts beyond the sale itself. Bonta said GM made numerous statements reassuring drivers that it would not sell that data, even as reports indicate the company did exactly that. That gap between public assurances and alleged conduct could prove as damaging as the financial penalty, because it turns a privacy dispute into a trust crisis.

The settlement underscores how modern vehicles have become rolling data machines. Cars now collect streams of information about where people go, how they drive, and when they move through the world. Regulators increasingly view that material as deeply personal, especially when precise location records can map a person’s habits with striking accuracy.

What happens next matters well beyond GM. The settlement will likely intensify scrutiny of automakers, data brokers, and the fine print behind connected-car services. It also sends a blunt warning to companies that privacy promises must match business practices — because in the next phase of this fight, regulators and drivers alike will ask not only what data companies collect, but who profits from it.