GM agrees to pay $220 million to settle claims it sold drivers' data to insurers, including in Florida

General Motors has agreed to pay $220 million to settle claims from a multistate coalition of attorneys general that it collected detailed driving data from millions of vehicle owners through its OnStar Smart Driver program and passed it to data brokers who sold it to insurance companies, according to reporting on the settlement announced Thursday, Oct. 29. WFLA reported that the deal covers drivers in Florida and other states, a development that matters to the many Floridians who drove Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac vehicles with OnStar during those years.

The agreement resolves claims brought by attorneys general from 35 states and the District of Columbia, according to Just Auto's report carried by Yahoo Finance and coverage by The Hill and TechCrunch. GM did not admit wrongdoing. The settlement does not include direct payments to individual drivers; the money goes to the participating states.

What the states say GM did

According to the states' findings as described in published coverage, GM enrolled millions of drivers in Smart Driver between 2016 and 2024, presenting the feature as a tool to help people drive more safely. Participants were told their data would not be shared with insurers without their explicit consent. Investigators found instead that GM contracted with data brokers that identified the information for use in insurance products, and those brokers sold it to insurance underwriters who used it in setting premiums.

The information was granular. Reports on the settlement say it included the number of trips a vehicle took, trip start and end times, hard braking, rapid acceleration and speeding above posted limits.

Most enrollments happened at franchised dealerships while customers were buying vehicles, as part of OnStar registration, according to the Just Auto report. The states allege that salespeople sometimes accepted the terms on customers' behalf, and that GM ran bonus programs for sales staff and ranked dealerships by how many drivers they enrolled.

One allegation stands out. The OnStar app wrongly told more than 370,000 drivers that they were not enrolled in Smart Driver while their data was still being collected and shared, according to the states. GM later unenrolled those drivers without formally telling them about the error, and their earlier records stayed with the brokers and insurers, the attorneys general said.

What the settlement requires

Beyond the $220 million payment, the agreement places conditions on how GM handles vehicle data going forward. According to coverage of the terms, GM must:

• Obtain drivers' affirmative express consent before collecting or sharing their driving and location data.
• Limit the driving data it collects under a comprehensive privacy program.
• Conduct internal and external assessments of that privacy program, with a third party assessing compliance.
• Set up compliance oversight and train staff across its franchised dealership network.

Washington and Oregon co-led the coalition. Washington will receive $12.3 million, according to Just Auto, while other states have announced their own shares, including about $7.33 million for Maryland and $7.66 million for North Carolina, according to those states' announcements as summarized in search coverage. An executive committee also included Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Utah and Vermont.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement quoted by Just Auto that "Washingtonians' data is personal and valuable, which is why they should always have control over how it's used."

GM said in a statement quoted in multiple reports that "this agreement addresses Smart Driver, a product we ended in 2024, and reinforces steps we've taken to strengthen our privacy practices."

The Florida angle

WFLA's headline described the case as involving private driver data sold in Florida and other states. The Florida Press could not locate an announcement of the settlement from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's office, and published coverage reviewed for this story did not state how much, if any, of the $220 million will go to Florida. Readers should treat Florida's precise role in the coalition and its dollar share as unconfirmed until the state releases details.

Florida drivers were among the first to take GM to court over the practice. In March 2024, Romeo Chicco, a Florida Cadillac owner, sued GM, OnStar and LexisNexis Risk Solutions in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, according to Insurance Journal. Chicco said he never enrolled in Smart Driver and that his insurance premiums doubled after his driving data was shared. GM, OnStar and LexisNexis denied the allegations. In June 2024, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered suits by drivers who said their rates rose after GM shared their data to be consolidated in federal court in Georgia.

The multistate settlement does not appear to resolve those private lawsuits, which seek money for individual drivers. None of the coverage of the state agreement says it does.

How this fits with earlier actions

The state settlement is the latest in a string of government actions against GM over Smart Driver. In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed order against GM and OnStar, which it finalized on Jan. 14, 2026. That order bans GM from disclosing consumers' geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies for five years and requires affirmative consent for collecting connected-vehicle data. It included no monetary payment.

In May 2026, GM agreed to pay $12.75 million to settle a separate investigation by California, according to Insurance Journal and Bay News 9. Texas and Arkansas have filed their own lawsuits against GM over the same practices, according to published reports.

GM said in March 2024 that it had stopped sharing OnStar Smart Driver customer data with LexisNexis and Verisk, the two companies most often named in litigation over the program. Verisk has said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it stopped receiving GM driving data in March 2024 and no longer provides driving behavior history reports to insurers.

What Florida drivers can do

Because the settlement includes no direct payouts, Florida drivers who owned GM vehicles between 2016 and 2024 will not receive a check from this agreement. Drivers who want to know whether their data was shared have options under federal law:

• Request a free copy of your consumer disclosure report from LexisNexis Risk Solutions through its consumer portal. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumer reporting agencies must provide your file on request.
• Request your driving behavior data from Verisk through its Driving Behavior Data Disclosure Form.
• Check the connected services and data sharing settings in your vehicle and in the myChevrolet, myGMC, myBuick or myCadillac apps, and review what you agreed to when you bought the vehicle.
• If a report contains information you believe is inaccurate, you can dispute it with the company that holds it.
• Drivers who believe they were harmed can file a complaint with the Florida Attorney General's office or the FTC.

Drivers who think their premiums rose because of shared data may also want to ask their insurer what information was used in pricing their policy.

What's next

Under the settlement, GM must pay the $220 million within 30 days of the agreement's effective date, which has been reported as Nov. 30, 2026. The privacy program and consent requirements will be subject to outside assessment. Meanwhile, the consolidated private lawsuits in Georgia federal court, which include claims from Florida drivers, continue separately, and Texas and Arkansas are pursuing their own cases.

For Florida, the open question is whether the attorney general's office will confirm the state's participation and announce how much it will receive and how the money will be used. The Florida Press will update this story when that information becomes available.