Major Car Makers Are Selling Driver Data For Pennies, Will The FTC Investigate?

Closeup of the front of a blue Hyundai car.
Pretty much any new car sold these days offers a connection to the internet in some form for fashion. This is to power smart capabilities, like onboard navigation and a plethora of other functions. However, some automakers are allegedly selling driver data to third parties at incredibly low prices, and it's not always obvious when this occurs. This raises an obvious privacy concerns, and a pair of US Senators are hoping the Federal Trace Commission (FTC) will open an investigation into the matter.

The issue stems from an earlier report by The New York Times, in which the outlet wrote a lengthy article on automakers sharing driving behaviors collected through telemetry with insurance companies. The report begins with an anecdotal account of a 65-year-old driver who discovered his leased Chevrolet Bolt was collecting data and sending it to LexisNexis, a global data broker in New York.

According to the report, his profile with LexisNexis contained more than 130 pages outlining the times he and/or his wife had driven their car over a six-month period, including start and end times for 640 trips. That information supposed resulted in his insurance rate spiking by 21%.

Now nearly five months later, Senators Ron Wyden and Edward J. Markey have sent a jointly-signed letter to the FTC urging it to investigate the situation. Part of the issue they raise in their letter is insufficient disclosure to consumers that their driving habits are being tracked and sold. They specifically highlight the practices of GM, Honda, and Hyundai.

"GM failed to obtain informed consent from consumers before sharing their data, and used manipulative design techniques, known as dark patterns, to coerce consumers into enrolling in its Smart Driver program, according to information the company provided Senator Wyden’s office," the letter states.

Closeup of a Honda badge on the front grill of a vehicle.

Likewise, the letter says Honda shared data from 97,000 vehicles between 2020 and 2024 with a company called Verisk, saying it paid the automaker $25,920. That amounts to just $0.26 per car, "and it did so without obtaining informed consent from consumers."

"On the enrollment screen, Honda asked consumers for consent for the company to track them so that it could determine the consumer’s driving score and their eligibility for insurance discounts. Users who provided consent were then prompted to accept the company’s lengthy legal terms, in which Honda stated that Verisk would receive the consumer’s data. However, Honda buried the disclosures about its business relationship with Verisk, which did not appear on the first page, and were not likely to be seen by many consumers," the letter states.

According to the letter, Hyundai was paid a bit more by Verisk—over $1 million for data from 1.7 million vehicles, which works out to $0.61 cents per car. According to the letter, Hyundai also didn't get proper informed consent from drivers before sharing their data.

"Hyundai required drivers to click through a consent form to enable the internet connection for a new car, but the company did not disclose that it would also share consumers’ data with Verisk if they agreed. Once enrolled, drivers could disenroll from the program through the company’s website or app," the letter adds.

The letter goes on to allege possible deceptions on the part of automakers by advertising these data collection policies as a way to lower insurance rates "without revealing that some insurers might charge some drivers more based on their telemetrics data." Additionally, the Senators warn that these "problematic practices" are "likely just the tip of the iceberg."

"Accordingly, we urge the FTC to broadly investigate these auto industry practices. The FTC should hold accountable the automakers, which shared their customers’ data with data brokers without obtaining informed consent, as well as the data brokers, which resold data that had not been obtained in a lawful manner," the letter states.

The Senators also state in their letter (PDF) that they want the FTC to hold senior company officials accountable for the "outrageous manipulation of consumers using dark patters."