Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced Tuesday morning he has filed a lawsuit against General Motors and OnStar for unlawfully collecting, processing and selling driving data from Nebraskans without their consent.
“What we believe, at a minimum, is that some people were opted in to this service, even if they didn’t want to be opted in,” Hilgers says. “But for everyone else, GM should have told the customers that they were going to use this data for this purpose, but instead they didn’t.”
According to the lawsuit, GM installed telematics systems in its vehicles that tracked a wide array of data points, including speed, seatbelt usage, driving habits, and location. Hilgers says GM then packaged and sold that data to third-party data brokers, who used it to create “Driving Scores” for millions of drivers.
The scores were later sold to insurance companies and used to raise rates, deny coverage, or cancel policies.
Among the key allegations:
- GM deceived consumers at the point of sale by misrepresenting the nature and scope of the OnStar-connected services.
- Consumers were often misled into believing enrollment in OnStar was mandatory to access basic safety features.
- GM failed to adequately disclose that enrollment in its mobile apps or Connected Vehicle Services would allow the company to collect and sell detailed personal data.
- Dealership employees were incentivized to enroll customers without proper disclosure and, in some cases, without any consent at all.
“Nebraskans deserve to work with companies that are truthful and honest about what they are doing,” Hilgers says. “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.”
The complaint seeks civil penalties, restitution for impacted Nebraskans, and injunctive relief to prevent GM and OnStar from continuing these practices in the state.