GM says it has stopped sharing driving data with two data brokers, after a report showed GM and others collecting and sharing data without clear consent
G.M. had provided information about braking, acceleration and speed to LexisNexis Risk Solution and Verisk, firms that generated driver risk profiles for insurers.
Context & Ripple Effects
This disclosure followed reporting that GM and other automakers had added app features to score driving behavior and send those signals to brokers. GM’s decision to halt transfers to LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk puts a visible boundary around a data flow used to build insurer-facing risk profiles.
The significance is not just the two broker relationships: it raises whether drivers were given a meaningful choice before braking, acceleration and speed data became inputs to insurance-related assessments. Subsequent coverage of a Smart Driver enrollment-status bug sharpened that consent question.
First-order effects
- GM stops providing driving-behavior data to LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk, interrupting those brokers’ access to this GM-supplied input for driver risk profiles.
- Drivers whose vehicle data was being transmitted gain an immediate limit on further sharing through these two channels, while GM must revisit how its connected-car feature disclosures and permissions operate.
Second-order effects
- LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk may need to adjust insurer-facing products that used GM signals; insurers relying on such profiles have less certainty about the continuity and provenance of that data.
- Other automakers using optional driving-score features, a practice described in the earlier reporting on app-based driving ratings, face pressure to make consent flows and broker-sharing terms more explicit.
Third-order effects
- Connected-car data is likely to be treated less as a default automaker byproduct and more as a separately governed insurance signal, with consent design becoming central to whether data can be licensed onward.
- If scrutiny persists, insurers and data brokers may have to distinguish clearly between driver-provided telematics and vehicle-derived behavioral data, reducing the opacity of risk-scoring supply chains.
The trend: This is one data point in the tightening of consent and data-rights controls around connected-car signals that can influence insurance pricing or eligibility.