AG Griffin files suit against GM for OnStar services

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed suit against General Motors and its OnStar service Wednesday (Feb. 26), alleging GM did not tell customers their driving data would be sold to third party brokers that then sold it to insurance companies that used the information to raise rates or deny coverage.

The suit was filed in Phillips County Circuit Court.

Griffin said customers were not informed when they agreed to the service that their driving data could be used to create risk products and cause financial harm — even if they read every word of the agreement.

“This suit is about deception,” he said. “There was no consent to the selling of this data by GM and OnStar, so people had no idea.”

The suit says consumers were told only that GM “may also share data with third parties … where you have elected to receive a service from them and/or authorized them to request data from GM (for example … usage based insurance providers.)” The suit says GM represented to third parties that consumers had provided consent.

OnStar is GM’s wholly-owned telematics subsidiary that provides services such as roadside assistance, remote operations, and navigation help. Griffin said consumers were thinking about OnStar being marketed as a safety product when they purchased it.

Consumer data that was sold included start time, end time, vehicle speed, high-speed driving percentage, late-night driving percentage, distance driven, acceleration data, and braking data. It appears the data was being sold at least as far back as 2015, he said.

Griffin said his office was seeking remedies including injunctive relief to prevent GM from violating motorists’ privacy, civil penalties not exceeding $10,000 for every violation of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and expenses.

Griffin said his office would be seeking to learn the impact on Arkansans during the discovery process. The suit estimates that data from more than 100,000 Arkansans’ vehicles was captured without obtaining informed consent. The suit says GM sold more than 28,000 vehicles in Arkansas in 2023 alone.

“Like I’ve tried to do with other suits, we’ll provide updates as we can, but we have reason to believe that there’s substantial impact on Arkansans,” Griffin said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be bringing the suit.”

He said the practice came to light as a result of a New York Times article published in March 2024. He said GM at the time said it would halt the practice.

Texas filed a lawsuit on the issue in 2024. Griffin said he generally prefers not to join other states in lawsuits because of the time that multistate investigations take.