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Check Your "MyChevrolet App" to "Opt Out" of GM Sharing Your Driving Habits with Insurance Companies. 

OnStar's Smart Driver program may be sending your driving data to insurance companies and other third-party data brokers without your knowledge. Here is how to opt out of the program.

There was a pretty big brouhaha that broke out last week following a New York Times article about GM’s OnStar being used to track the driving habits of owners, and many may have not realized that their cars were spying on them. We already knew about the black boxes in modern day cars that police may look at to determine how fast you were going prior to an accident, and we figured GM uses the data to determine whether or not to decline warranty service calls. What we didn’t think is how GM would sell-out their customers for additional revenue.

It turns out that GM was sharing driver data with insurance companies and making millions off the data of its customers. This program is called “Smart Driver” which fortunately requires consent from its customers before the data is shared with data brokers and insurance companies.

The NY Times article shared the story of a Chevrolet Bolt owner whose insurance coverage went up dramatically, as did quotes from other companies. Learning that there was a LexisNexis data report on him, he requested a copy and was shocked to find it was 258 pages that covered his daily driving over the previous six months. The underlying data from the report was provided to LexisNexis by General Motors. LexisNexis then used the data to create a risk-score and provided that data to insurers who used it as a factor in their determining their insurance coverage. Eight other insurance companies also requested that data on the Bolt owner, who claimed “It felt like betrayal. “They’re taking information that I didn’t realize was going to be shared and screwing with our insurance.”

The Times article also says an employee familiar with GM’s Smart Driver program says that the annual revenue collected by the company for the data is in the “low millions of dollars”.

However, this Chevy Bolt owner wasn’t the only one surprised to have GM giving up their driving habits. Many customers may not have realized that they were enrolled in the Smart Driver program because of the legal consent requests doesn’t explicitly say that GM would be providing your driving data to third parties. But that clause is in the OnStar Privacy Statement under the “How We May Share Your Information” in the “Third Pardy Business Relationships” clause where states:

We may also share data with third parties for marketing activities (with necessary consents) or where you have elected to receive a service from them and/or authorized them to request data from GM (for example, financial organizations who offer financing for the purchase or lease of GM vehicles or usage based insurance providers).

The OnStar Smart Driver program requires a 2015 or newer GM Vehicle and an OnStar Safety and Security Plan, which means that C7 Corvettes (2015-2019) (excluding 2014 Stingrays) and all C8 Corvettes could be spying on you and reporting how often you brake hard, accelerate fast and drive faster than 80 mph. Starting in 2022, Chevrolet made the $300 OnStar subscription mandatory on all new Corvettes, so it’s possible that you are enrolled without your

knowledge.

To make sure you are opted out of the program, pull up your MyChevrolet App and make sure you are not enrolled in the OnStar Smart Driver program. The graphic above was posted to Facebook on the C8 Corvette Owners group, and it shows the steps you need to take on the app to no longer consent to the program.

Our friend Mike from the Brink of Speed YouTube Channel is not happy with this program at all, and he makes some very great points about how you spend thousands and thousands of dollars buying a new GM vehicle, and this is how they repay us for being a valued customer.

The Surprising Legal Ramifications of Having a Dashcam in Your Car

Want to make sure your mechanic isn't messing with your car? Be careful, a dashcam could actually get you in trouble too.

We've all seen the hilarious footage of a customer car being taken on a joyride by a mechanic, with the whole ordeal recorded by the customer's dashboard camera. Hapless technicians and porters flog cars, often with the dash cam right in front of them preparing to make them YouTube stars.

Are there any potential legal ramifications to the car owner for any of this? Believe it or not, yes. Here is what you need to know about your dash cam, from a legal perspective.

Many states have eavesdropping statutes. And this means I have to insert the normal caveat here: This WILL vary wildly from state to state. But in general terms, eavesdropping statutes govern whether you can record a conversation without the consent of some or all of the participants to the conversation.

While most people get their dash cams so they record the view through their windshield, dash cams often record audio from inside the passenger compartment as well. In Michigan, courts have ruled that a person can record a conversation to which they are a party regardless of the other parties to the conversation knowing or giving consent in advance. So, if you have a dash cam in your own car and it is recording while you drive, you have no problem since you are a "party" to any conversation going on in your car.

The issue arises when you are not in your car. Like when you drop off your supercar for minor warranty work and leave it in the hands of professionals for the day. If your dash cam records a conversation between people in the car that you are not a part of, it would be considered "eavesdropping" in many states. Eavesdropping statutes often carry harsh penalties: In Michigan it is a felony, carrying possible prison time and a steep fine. As an attorney, I advise you to avoid eavesdropping.

There are a couple of points to be made here, however. The obvious one is that all of these statutes tend to address "conversation." As in, people talking. If the dash cam is only recording video but no audio, you would be fine. Does the camera have a mute function? If so, mute it when you will not be in the car.

If you didn't mute the recording and got some juicy footage–including audio–of your car being thrashed, you might still have some decent defenses. The obvious one is that the camera is in plain sight. Did the miscreants really not know what the dash cam was doing while they were beating on your car? If the recording was not secret, then it might not be considered eavesdropping.

It might also help you that the people abusing your car are likely breaking the law. [Fun fact: The authorization I signed to let you test drive my car did not give you permission to joy ride in it. And I HAVE litigated that issue before.] Courts often look askance at people who come before them with unclean hands, asking for help. "He eavesdropped on me while I was whipping his car!"

Of all of the cases I've seen so far–and I've seen a few–I have yet to see someone get in trouble for "eavesdropping" in their own car. But, it is just something I need to point out. I'm sure we'll hear of it one of these days. In the meantime, mute the microphone on the camera when you drop the car off – just in case. The footage will be just as funny without sound.

Here's even more that you need to know about dashcams: