Nebraska Sues GM Over Alleged Unauthorized Collection of Driving Data

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers filed a lawsuit this week
alleging General Motors and its telematics service provider OnStar
collected driving data without consumers' knowledge or consent to
create driving scores that were later sold to insurance companies
and used to raise rates.

The
lawsuit alleges GM installed telematics systems in its vehicles
that tracked a wide array of data points, including speed, seatbelt
usage, driving habits, and location.

GM then entered into agreements with third-party companies
requiring them to create "telematics exchanges"—databases housing
the collected Driving Data, the lawsuit says. Under these
agreements, the third parties could then use that data to calculate
and assign a driving score.

A driving score includes personally identifiable information for
each GM customer using risk factors developed by the automaker.
Risk factors GM considered negative included late night driving,
driver and passenger seatbelt status, and instances of sharp turns,
hard braking, hard acceleration, and driving over eighty miles per
hour, the lawsuit says.

GM allegedly required these third parties to sell car insurance
companies access to the telematics exchanges. After buying access,
these insurers could access the driving scores of more than sixteen
million drivers of GM vehicles.

Related: Suit Says OnStar, LexisNexis Shared Driving Data With
Insurers, Spiking Rates

Those insurers allegedly then used the driving scores and to
make decisions about consumers' insurance, including increasing
insurance premiums, canceling existing insureds' coverage, or
denying coverage entirely.

"Nebraskans deserve to work with companies that are truthful and
honest about what they are doing," Hilgers said. "That is not what
happened here, and we filed this lawsuit because one large company
decided that it wouldn't honestly tell Nebraskans that their data
was going to be used to impact their insurance rates. This is
wrong. Our office will hold companies that mislead Nebraskans
accountable, no matter how large."

The lawsuit alleges GM deceived customers at the point of sale
by misrepresenting the scope of its OnStar telematics services.
Customers allegedly were often misled to believe enrollment in
OnStar was mandatory to access basic safety features.

Additionally, dealerships were incentivized to enroll customers
in OnStar without proper disclosure, and, in some cases, without
any consent at all, the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint seeks civil penalties and restitution for impacted
Nebraska drivers.