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Telematics: What Your Car Records About Your Driving, and Who Buys It

Short answer: your car very likely records driving-behavior data, and for at least one manufacturer the path from the vehicle to your insurance rate is documented end to end in government filings. The Federal Trade Commission alleged that General Motors and OnStar collected "precise geolocation data and driving behavior information from millions of vehicles -- data that can be used to set insurance rates -- without adequately notifying consumers and obtaining their affirmative consent," and it has now finalized an order against them. The Texas Attorney General sued over the same conduct. Those documents, not anyone's speculation, are what this page quotes.

By Anthony Braswell for Quorum Industries LLC, The Autobody Directory · Updated 2026-08-15 · How this was written, and what the machine may not do

How this page was produced: Researched, drafted and checked with AI assistance under human direction, and signed off by the named author. How this site is written

What this page will show you

The documented chain, step by step

The collection. The FTC's January 2025 complaint announcement, the agency's first action related to connected vehicle data, alleged that GM "monitored and sold people's precise geolocation data and driver behavior information, sometimes as often as every three seconds." Geolocation was "collected every three seconds for some users." The driving-behavior data included "every instance of hard braking, late night driving, and speeding."

The enrollment. Both governments describe the same front door. The FTC alleged GM "used a misleading enrollment process to get consumers to sign up" for OnStar and the OnStar Smart Driver feature: "some consumers were unaware that they had been signed up." The Texas Attorney General's office, suing in August 2024 over data from more than 1.5 million Texans, alleged the technology sat in "most 2015 model year or newer GM vehicles," that enrollment was pushed during vehicle "onboarding," and that customers were told "failing to enroll would result in the deactivation of their vehicle's safety features."

The sale. In the FTC's words: GM "failed to clearly disclose that it collected consumers' precise geolocation and driving behavior data and sold it to third parties, including consumer reporting agencies, without consumers' consent." Texas alleged the data went to "at least two companies for the purpose of generating 'Driving Scores' about GM's customers and selling these scores to insurance companies."

The use. The FTC again: "These consumer reporting agencies used the sensitive information GM provided to compile credit reports on consumers, which were used by insurance companies to deny insurance and set rates." One consumer's complaint, quoted in the FTC's announcement: "When I signed up for this, it was so OnStar could track me. They said nothing about reporting it to a third party. Nothing. [...] I pay you, now you're making me pay more to my insurance company."

The order. The FTC finalized its order in January 2026. GM and OnStar are banned for five years from disclosing geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies, and for the twenty-year life of the order they must obtain affirmative express consent before collecting, using or sharing connected vehicle data; give every U.S. consumer a way to request a copy of their data and its deletion; let consumers disable precise geolocation collection where the vehicle supports it; and provide an opt-out for geolocation and driver-behavior collection, with limited exceptions such as emergency responders.

The honest limits

Everything above is documented for one manufacturer, because regulators put it on the record. It is NOT evidence that every manufacturer does the same thing, and this page will not pretend otherwise. The Texas Attorney General said in 2024 that his office had opened an investigation into "several car manufacturers"; what that produced beyond the GM suit is not something we have read, so it is not something we will characterise. If you want to know what your own car transmits, the manufacturer's connected-services privacy notice is the controlling document; it is the company describing its own practice, and it is usually written for the whole model line, not your specific configuration.

Two adjacent questions we are asked, answered honestly. Can you remove or unplug the telematics module? That is manufacturer-specific: on some vehicles the module is entangled with safety and convenience systems, and the only trustworthy answer comes from that manufacturer's own service information, not from a forum. Does a factory-installed system mean your insurer already has your data? No: the documented GM chain ran through enrollment in a specific feature and through consumer reporting agencies, and the finalized order now requires affirmative consent. What your policy's usage-based-insurance program collects, if you joined one, is a separate, disclosed arrangement you agreed to.

What this has to do with collision repair

Two things, and they are why this page is on a body shop directory.

First, the hardware. The data above leaves the car through communications hardware built into it, the same category of connected components a collision repair can disturb. Ford's own support pages, for example, note that its BlueCruise driver-assistance feature "requires a Connected Services plan and modem activation." A car is increasingly a networked device, and the network stack is part of the repair scope whether anyone prices it or not. The calibration side of that argument is covered in ADAS calibration explained and windshield recalibration: what you're owed.

Second, the buyer. The end of the documented chain, the entity the FTC says used the data "to deny insurance and set rates", is the same industry that writes the estimate when you crash. A reader who understands that the carrier's software grades their driving should also understand that software grades their claim: see AI is grading your auto claim. And what the car recorded about the crash itself can surface in the claim file; what it records about YOU, rather than about the driving, is a different subject with different law, covered in what your car records about you, not your driving.

Related

Sources

Read in full on the issuing government's own site on 2026-08-15:

Allegations are described as allegations; order terms are described as order terms. This page is not legal advice.

General consumer information: not legal, insurance, or financial advice. Requirements, coverage, and practices vary by state, policy, and manufacturer.

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