Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued General Motors this week, accusing the Detroit automaker of collecting and selling customer data to insurance companies without consent.
Mr. Paxton announced the suit in a press release Tuesday, alleging GM collected enormous amounts of data on its customers and sold it to various companies to generate “Driving Scores.”
“Companies are using invasive technology to violate the rights of our citizens in unthinkable ways. Millions of American drivers wanted to buy a car, not a comprehensive surveillance system that unlawfully records information about every drive they take and sells their data to any company willing to pay for it,” the attorney general said.
The suit focuses on vehicles manufactured by GM from 2015 onward.
According to Mr. Paxton, GM deceived customers into signing up for programs that tracked their driving habits. The suit claims that the onboarding process for some vehicles implied that failing to enroll in the program would deactivate the car’s safety measures.
“Unbeknownst to customers, however, by enrolling in GM’s products, they were ’agreeing’ to General Motors’ collection and sale of their data. Despite lengthy and convoluted disclosures, General Motors never informed its customers of its actual conduct — the systematic collection and sale of their highly detailed driving data,” the complaint reads.
The data was then sold to insurance companies, which used the data to generate insurance rates for drivers.
The suit is the result of an investigation opened by Mr. Paxton’s office in June covering the data collection policies of various automakers.
This week’s suit is part of a greater effort by Mr. Paxton to crack down on data privacy. Last month, the Lone Star State secured a $1.4 billion settlement from tech giant Meta as part of a lawsuit that accused the Facebook parent of illegally collecting facial recognition data from Texans.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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