Arizona Attorney General (AG) Kris Mayes announced that General Motors (GM) would pay a $220 million settlement over allegations that it sold driver data to insurance companies.
The Context
General Motors offered a Smart Driver program from 2016 to 2024 that ostensibly helped drivers improve their driving safety habits based on data, but it violated drivers' privacy by reneging on its promise not to sell their data without permission or knowledge.
This data was sold to insurance companies, who used it to calculate insurance premiums that could increase based on the data.
A coalition of 35 states and the District of Columbia sued GM for the practice, and the company agreed to pay $220 million in settlements.
What Mayes is Saying
"Drivers were enrolled in data tracking without their knowledge," AG Mayes said in a press release, adding, "My office will continue to enforce Arizona's consumer protection laws to ensure companies respect the privacy of the people they serve."
Holding Companies Accountable
AG Mayes has targeted numerous corporations in recent weeks for various deceptions and failures, beginning in October by suing social media giant TikTok for engineering its platform to maximize compulsive use among minors and failing to moderate the content they see.
The Arizona Attorney General then went after AI company OpenAI for allegedly failing to disclose that ChatGPT's features make the chatbot dangerously agreeable and sycophantic to keep people, including minors, on the platform.
Next in Mayes' sights was the online gaming platform Roblox, which gained infamy for its alleged failure to protect its predominantly child user base from child predators, exploitation, and graphic sexual or violent content.
Finally, she aided 18 other states in suing Dollar General for repeatedly mislabeling prices, overcharging consumers, and failing to correct the issue despite extensive corporate knowledge, a problem that has persisted for years despite thousands of customer complaints.
