PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley announces South Dakota will receive $2,600,792 from General Motors to settle allegations that it illegally sold consumers’ private driver behavior data and location information to third parties, including data brokers who then sold the data to insurance companies. For many consumers, this data was used by insurance companies in part to set insurance rates.
“Protecting South Dakotans privacy is a priority,” said Attorney General Jackley. “Our settlement guards privacy by requiring express consent from consumers before collecting or disclosing consumer driving and location data.”
From 2016 to 2024, GM enrolled millions of drivers nationwide in their Smart Driver Program, which tracked their driving habits. However, GM was discovered to have sold this information to data brokers under contracts that specified the data was to be used for insurance products. The data brokers sold the data to insurance companies, who could then change the driver’s premium based on their driving habits. GM did not disclose to drivers that their data would be sold for this purpose.
As part of the settlement, GM is required to give consumers options to request a copy of their collected data, delete it, and disable the collection of exact location and driving behavior. South Dakota’s funds will be deposited into the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Fund and may be used to reimburse attorney’s fees and other costs of investigation and litigation, as well as funding future consumer protection efforts, and any other use permitted by state law.
Attorney General Jackley was one of 36 Attorneys General involved in the settlement. The case was co-led by Washington and Oregon, assisted by the Executive Committee of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Utah, and Vermont, and joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, the District Of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
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