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Texas Sues General Motors Over Collection and Sale of Private Driving Data
General Motors was allegedly compensated for the deals with lump-sum payments and royalties, some worth millions of dollars.
General Motors (GM) collected and sold to insurance companies the private driving data of more than 1.5 million Texans, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has alleged in a new lawsuit.
Vehicles produced by GM from 2015 or later have technology marketed for the operability convenience and safety of its product, known as the “OnStar” feature. But that technology also comes with tracking capabilities.
“[F]or years, Defendants General Motors and its subsidiary, OnStar LLC have unlawfully collected, used, and sold the Driving Data it obtained through this technology,” the lawsuit alleges, accusing the company of deceptive trade practices. The amount of data collected and sold, according to the suit, is quite extensive.
“The Driving Data collected and sold by General Motors included data from over 14 million of its vehicles, and the data of more than 1.8 million Texans. That Driving Data consisted of the date, start time, end time, vehicle speed, driver and passenger seatbelt status, and distance driven each time a customer drove their GM vehicle. The Driving Data also consisted of information about customers’ use of other GM products, including data collected from General Motors’ mobile apps.”
Link to article here.
Lawmakers clash with toll bureaucracies over cap on toll fines
By Terri Hall
March 11, 2018
Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research
It’s a great day for Texas drivers as a new law takes effect capping the toll fines and fees on some Texas tollways to $48 a year. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion just as the law took effect that said the new law applies to all toll entities, but only under a limited section of the Transportation Code — Chapter 228. This has put toll agencies, like the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), on a collision course with lawmakers over the interpretation of how broadly the law impacts certain toll projects.
Paxton did assert the new law applies to “an entity operating a toll lane pursuant to Section 228.007(b), Transportation Code,” which brings in every type of toll entity. However, most toll projects are not governed by agreements with TxDOT under Chapter 228, so toll bureaucracies argue the new law, passed as part of SB 312 last year, only applies to a handful of toll projects.
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