GM, Honda, Kia, Hyundai, and others added optional features in their apps to rate people's driving in recent years, offering the data to brokers like LexisNexis
LexisNexis, which generates consumer risk profiles for the insurers, knew about every trip G.M. drivers had taken in their cars … Mastodon: @dangillmor@mastodon.social . X: @evan_greer , @ccanonne_ , @ericdharvey , @kashhill , @lawrencehurley , @halsinger , @swiftonsecurity , @lmower3 , @jose_pagliery , @nick_kapur , @tomgara , @davecullen , @hoofnagle , and @kashhill Forums: Hacker News , r/technology , r/cars , and r/business Mastodon: Dan Gillmor / @dangillmor@mastodon.social : The automobile industry has absolute contempt for its customers' privacy. The insurance industry has absolute contempt for its customers' privacy. Together, they're a perfect demonstration of how bad it's getting for people who don't want to be spied on. … X: @evan_greer : Once again destroying the “if you have nothing to hide” argument. Your car snitching on you to your insurance company https://www.nytimes.com/... Clément Canonne / @ccanonne_ : “Jen Caltrider, a researcher at Mozilla [...] said that drivers have little idea about what they are consenting to when it comes to data collection. [...] She called cars “a privacy nightmare."" https://www.nytimes.com/... Eric Harvey / @ericdharvey : Two reactions to this apart from the bonkers privacy stuff: 1) in college, I went to the library to use LexisNexis to find useful sources for my research papers, now it's a “global data broker” catering to the insurance industry 2) the guy's name is “Kenn Dahl” lmao @kashhill : Anyone who drives a General Motors car (Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, Corvette, Camaro, Buick) should read this story. If you use “Smart Driver,” your detailed driving data is going to data brokers. It's possible you have it turned on & don't realize it. https://www.nytimes.com/... Lawrence Hurley / @lawrencehurley : I have been wondering about the data cars collect these days. This provides some answers: Hal Singer / @halsinger : Cue the corporate lickspittles to write a column explaining how auto insurers can actually use this newfound driver data—never mind the infringement on privacy—to *reduce* premiums for safer drivers! https://www.nytimes.com/... [image] @swiftonsecurity : Wow: “G.M. confirmed that it shares “select insights” about hard braking, hard accelerating, speeding over 80 miles an hour and drive time of Smart Driver enrollees with LexisNexis and another data broker” Users were opted-in by dealership employees https://www.nytimes.com/... Lawrence Mower / @lmower3 : This is one of the most WTF stories I've read in a while. Automakers such as @GM are sharing customers' driving behavior with data brokers, who give it to insurance companies. Jose Pagliery / @jose_pagliery : The congressional hearing over this is going to be lit. Nick Kapur / @nick_kapur : Carmakers are secretly sharing detailed individual driving data with insurers, including how often people speed, brake too hard, or accelerate too fast, sometimes leading to spikes in insurance rates even for people with otherwise perfect driving records. https://www.nytimes.com/... Tom Gara / @tomgara : Amazing story. I wonder how long until the credit agencies start being similarly creative in the kind of data used for credit scores https://www.nytimes.com/... Dave Cullen / @davecullen : This is outrageous. GM should get a massive fine, and their sales should plummet. When is Congress address the deceptive practice of corps granting themselves insane rights by burying it in the terms/conditions no reasonable person has time to read. https://www.nytimes.com/... Chris Hoofnagle / @hoofnagle : If you give a pig a pancake... https://www.nytimes.com/...? @kashhill : This is the most WTF privacy story I've worked on in a while. Discovered while lurking on car forums. https://www.nytimes.com/... [image] Forums: Hacker News : Automakers Are Sharing Consumers' Driving Behavior with Insurance Companies r/technology : Automakers Are Sharing Consumers' Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies r/cars : Automakers Are Sharing Consumers' Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies r/business : Automakers Are Sharing Consumers' Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies
Context & Ripple Effects
Connected-car telemetry had already become a marketplace involving dozens of companies, while earlier coverage warned that mobility data could affect insurance pricing through location- and behavior-based risk assessment. This report makes that chain concrete by tying automaker app features to consumer-reporting data flows.
It also extends a longer dispute over automakers' control of vehicle-generated information, including limits on drivers' control over vehicle data that can shape downstream services and choices.
First-order effects
- Smart Driver enrollees and users of comparable automaker app features can have driving-behavior signals and, in GM's case, detailed trip information supplied to brokers such as LexisNexis for insurer risk profiles.
- GM and the other named automakers face immediate scrutiny over enrollment and consent design, particularly where dealership staff reportedly activated the feature for customers.
Second-order effects
- Insurers and data brokers gain a vehicle-originated input for risk profiling, increasing pressure on automakers to clarify what data is collected, who receives it, and how customers opt in.
- The disclosure puts broker-sharing partnerships at risk: GM later stopped sharing driving data with two brokers, showing that consent concerns can quickly alter these arrangements.
Third-order effects
- If automaker telemetry remains an underwriting input, vehicle ownership increasingly carries a continuing data-permission layer that can affect insurance access and pricing, not just vehicle operation.
- The episode points toward tighter limits on consumer-reporting uses of connected-car data; the later FTC ban on GM's sales of driver-behavior and geolocation data shows that disclosure and consent practices can become a regulatory constraint.
The trend: Connected vehicles are becoming data platforms whose telemetry can be monetized in insurance underwriting, bringing consent and consumer-reporting rules to the center of automaker strategy.