Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing General Motors (GM) and its subsidiary OnStar LLC, accusing the automotive giant of engaging in deceptive practices related to the collection and sale of customer data.
According to the filing, this data included information such as vehicle speed, seat belt status, distance driven, and trip start and end times. The collected data was then sold to third-party companies, including insurance firms, the complaint states.
The suit follows Paxton’s June announcement that his office had opened an investigation into several car manufacturers over similar allegations.
The lawsuit alleges that GM’s data practices have potentially affected over 1.8 million Texans, part of a broader network of over 14 million vehicles from which data was collected.
“When consumers purchase a vehicle, their primary concern is how effectively it will get them from Point A to Point B,” the suit says. “But for years, consumers who purchased GM vehicles also unwittingly opted into an all-seeing surveillance system.”
GM allegedly compelled customers to enroll in products such as OnStar Smart Driver during the vehicle “onboarding” process at the dealership after purchasing a new vehicle.
The complaint states that customers who were finalizing their car purchase were shown an electronic document over 50 pages in length with disclosures about OnStar products, which the suit describes as confusing and misleading.
“Further, if a customer attempted to decline to enroll, they would be shown various ‘warning’ messages which represented that declining would result in the de-activation of several of their vehicle’s safety features,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit says GM began installing the technology in new vehicles starting with model year 2015.
Paxton’s office is seeking damages and a court order to halt GM’s current data practices. The lawsuit also seeks the deletion of all unlawfully obtained data.
GM did not respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.
