Nebraska on Tuesday sued General Motors over selling driver data to third parties without consent. File Photo by Jeff Kowalsky/EPA
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers has filed a lawsuit against General Motors and OnStar, accusing the automaker and its subsidiary company of selling the driving data of Nebraskans, without the drivers’ consent, which was then used to affect insurance rates and coverage.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the Nebraska District Court of Lancaster County, seeking a ruling that the scheme illegal under the state’s consumer protection and deceptive trade practices laws, and requesting civil penalties.
“Nebraskans deserve to work with companies that are truthful and honest about what they are doing,” Hilgers said in a statement.
“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.”
According to the court document, since at least 2015, GM and OnStar have collected and analyzed vehicle usage data, which they then processed and sold to third parties without consent. Those third parties then sold that information to insurance companies, which could use it against the Nebraskan drivers to increase their insurance rates or outright cancel their policies outright.
GM told those third-party companies that vehicle purchasers had consented to the collection and sale of their data, but Nebraska argues that GM used “deceptive, unconscionable and unlawful tactics” to enroll customers in its OnStar data collection services.
“GM’s deceptive and unlawful tactics included overwhelming and misleading vehicle purchasers (or lessees) with pages of deceptive, inconspicuous and materially misleading disclosures about OnStar products, including product descriptions and privacy policies that failed to adequately disclose how GM would use its customers’ driving data,” it said.
General Motors is a Detroit-based automaker behind iconic American car brands Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC, while its Delaware-based subsidiary, OnStar, is a subscription-based communications company whose services include vehicle security and emergency assistance.
The lawsuit states GM had 19 suppliers and 54 car dealerships that sold nearly 18,900 vehicles in Nebraska in 2023.
The case comes seven months after the Federal Trade Commission issued its first-ever action related to vehicle data, banning GM, OnStar and its other subsidiaries from disclosing consumers’ geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies for five years.
In August, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a similar lawsuit to Nebraska’s against GM over its selling of Texas drivers’ data.
