In early 2023, General Motors announced that it was phasing out CarPlay in favor of its own custom infotainment system that would be designed in cooperation with Google. As annoying as that was for Apple fans who like GM vehicles, a recent decision by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) just gave this a more sinister slant.
It seems that GM has been selling the location and driving data of its customers without their express consent. At least, that's how the FTC sees it. For its part, GM claimed that customers had consented when they enrolled in the OnStar connected vehicle service and OnStar Smart Driver features. However, the FTC disagreed that this constituted valid consent.
The FTC alleged that customers were misled into signing up for OnStar by dealers who described it "as a type of notification for vehicle maintenance" and "services to help you maintain and monitor your vehicle's health." The FTC noted that GM instructed its authorized dealers to present OnStar to customers in this manner.
Respondents instructed GM-authorized dealers to describe the OnStar Smart Driver feature as a type of notification for vehicle maintenance, with statements like, "On the Enrollment Preferences page, first you can accept or decline to receive notification enrollments. These are notifications for services to help you maintain and monitor your vehicle's health, like Smart Driver, Vehicle Diagnostics & Alerts, Theft Alarm Notifications, Data usage, and Dealer Maintenance Notifications." Respondents' talking points were misleading because the OnStar Smart Driver feature was not related to vehicle maintenance or vehicle health at all.
Federal Trade Commission Complaint against General Motors
While OnStar began as a relatively innocuous service to help customers in an emergency and provide real-time traffic and navigation, the FTC notes that GM has increased the amount of data it collects over the years, to the point where it's now pulling in precise geolcoation data of where your car is every few seconds.
GM monitored and sold people's precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds. With this action, the FTC is safeguarding Americans' privacy and protecting people from unchecked surveillance.
FTC Chair Lina M. Khan
That's bad enough by itself, considering that GM failed to disclose this level of tracking to its customers -- even in the fine print. However, GM also sold this data to insurance companies, which used it to set their customers' rates behind their backs.
Respondents told consumers the driving data they collected from consumers would be used for the consumers' own assessment of their driving habits. However, Respondents used their tracking technology to sell precise geolocation data and consumer driving behavior data without consumers' consent. As a result of these practices, consumers have experienced loss of auto insurance, unexpected increases in insurance premiums, as well as the loss of privacy about sensitive locations they visit and their day-to-day movements.
Federal Trade Commission Complaint against General Motors
In its press release, the FTC cites one GM customer telling a customer service representative, "[w]hen I signed up for this, it was so OnStar could track me. They said nothing about reporting it to a third party. Nothing. [...] You guys are affecting our bottom line. I pay you, now you're making me pay more to my insurance company."
The FTC has issued an order requiring General Motors and OnStar to "obtain affirmative express consent" before collecting any connected vehicle data while also banning them from disclosing any geolocation and driving behavior data for five years. Neither restriction applies to providing location data to first responders during an emergency call.
The carmaker is also being ordered to allow consumers to see what data has been collected, request that it be deleted from GM's servers, and properly limit data collection from their vehicles, specifically precise geolocation and driver behavior data.
GM has laughably tried to couch its shift away from CarPlay as a "safety measure," suggesting that CarPlay and Android Auto are distracting to drivers because they encourage users to pick up their phones more often when there's a bad connection to the infotainment system. However, most analysts believe the company's real intent is to try to capture a slice of the subscription services market by encouraging more customers to pay for an advanced system that's "more tightly integrated with other vehicle systems such as GM's Super Cruise driver assistant," which also gives it more flexibility to collect data on driving habits.