You know when someone brakes suddenly in front of you…

you slam the brakes…

and think:

Some GM (General Motors)cars were thinking:

Hard braking.

Hard acceleration.

Speeding.

Late-night driving.

Where you went.

When you went there.

General Motors collected this kind of information from some drivers through its connected-car systems.

Then some of it ended up in consumer reports used by insurance companies.

And for some drivers, the result was very real:

higher premiums — or even losing coverage.

Your car had apparently discovered LinkedIn references.

Because modern cars aren't just machines anymore.

They're computers with wheels.

And computers are extremely good at remembering things you forgot they were watching.

But according to the FTC, some GM vehicles collected precise location information as often as every three seconds.

Speed.

Direction.

Time.

Location.

Enough data to reconstruct entire trips.

So that giant screen in your dashboard isn't the only smart thing in the car.

The car itself is generating a résumé of how you drive.

GM had a feature called OnStar Smart Driver.

The pitch was pretty harmless:

See how you're driving.

Get feedback.

Become a safer driver.

Basically:

But according to the FTC, data from enrolled drivers - including hard braking, acceleration, high speeds and late-night driving - was also sold to companies such as LexisNexis and Verisk.

Those companies created consumer reports.

Insurance companies could then use those reports when deciding:

how much you pay

or

whether they want to insure you at all.

Some drivers only discovered the whole system after receiving notices saying their insurance premium had increased, their policy was cancelled, or coverage was denied.

That's one hell of a way to discover your car has been gossiping.

The best part?

The feature was supposed to help you judge your driving.

The FTC alleged that many consumers weren't clearly told that the same information could leave the car and be included in an insurance report.

So:

You thought you were reading your report card.

Someone else was reading it too.

GM stopped sharing Smart Driver data with LexisNexis and Verisk in 2024 and later shut the feature down. In January 2026, the FTC finalised an order banning GM for 5 years from providing covered location and driving-behaviour data to consumer-reporting agencies and requiring stronger consent and deletion controls.

California separately secured a $12.75 million settlement over GM's sale of driving and location data.

So this isn't a hypothetical privacy debate.

Regulators already intervened.

For years, everyone worried about their phone knowing where they were.

Fair concern.

But your phone mostly comes along for the ride.

Your connected car can potentially know:

where you went

how fast you got there

when you slammed the brakes

and what time you came home.

We worried about technology tracking us everywhere.

Apparently nobody asked what happens when the thing tracking you everywhere…

is also the thing taking you there.

The monkey is checking the privacy settings before starting the engine.