OnStar May Be Sharing Driving Data With Insurance Companies

OnStar, a subsidiary of Cadillac parent company, General Motors, provides telematics services such as telecommunications, vehicle security, navigation, remote vehicle diagnostics, and internet access in equipped vehicles. However, OnStar may be collecting customer driving data through a data broker, which may then distribute said data to insurance companies without consent, in turn affecting owners’ insurance premiums.

According to a recent report from The New York Times, Romeo Chicco, a Cadillac owner in Florida, has filed a federal lawsuit against GM and LexisNexis Risk Solutions, global data broker that provides auto insurance companies with information on events such as car accidents and tickets. Chicco’s lawsuit alleges violation of privacy and consumer protection laws as a result of unauthorized sharing of driving data from his 2021 Cadillac XT6.

The data – which detailed 258 trips made over the course of six months, including instances of speeding, hard braking and acceleration, and when trips started and ended – was allegedly shared through the GM OnStar Smart Driver program, which Chicco claims he never enrolled in. Chicco claims that the data sharing resulted in significantly elevated insurance premiums.

As a reminder, the OnStar Smart Driver program aims to help those enrolled “become a better driver” by tracking and rating driving habits and seatbelt use, offering a gamified approach to thise items.

Cadillac Society reached out to GM regarding the matter as OnStar is a standard feature in Cadillac vehicles, and we received the following statement and information. 

“GM’s OnStar Smart Driver service is optional to customers, who give their consent three times before limited data is shared with an insurance carrier through a third party,” a GM spokesperson told us. “Customer benefits include learning more about their safe driving behaviors or vehicle performance that, with their consent, may be used to obtain insurance quotes. Customers can also unenroll from Smart Driver at any time.”

• The driving behavior insights can only be shared when a customer explicitly consents through an insurance carrier to have the data shared. This is after two other consents as well, one at the time of accepting privacy terms when enrolling in OnStar, and the other at the time of consenting to and enrolling in Smart Driver.
• The goal of these programs is always to reduce the total cost of insurance, and millions of GM customers have saved on their car insurance because of such services.
• If a customer has an issue with Smart Driver, they can start a live chat, push their blue OnStar button, or call at 1-888-466-7827.
• Customers can also find more information at: https://www.onstar.com/support/faq/smart-driver

It’s worth noting that GM has since ceased operations with LexisNexis and another data broker, Verisk.

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