Aug 31, 2026
Google remotely stripped the smart features off the thermostat still on your wall.
Google remotely stripped the smart features off the thermostat still on your wall.
Your GM car tracked how you drive and sold it to your insurance company, who then used it to raise your rates.
Since 2015, GM has gathered trip details, driving behavior, and real-time location data through OnStar Smart Driver and vehicle telematics. The company sold that data to brokers like LexisNexis and Verisk, who packaged it for insurers that used it to raise premiums and deny coverage. After a New York Times investigation, a Texas lawsuit revealed GM had collected data from more than 14 million vehicles, and in January 2026 the FTC banned GM from sharing this data with consumer reporting agencies for five years.
Published Sep 07, 2026
What happened
Since 2015, General Motors has been collecting and monetizing driving data from millions of internet connected vehicles.
Through a free feature called OnStar Smart Driver and vehicle telematics, GM was gathering comprehensive data about drivers, including trip details, driving behavior, and real-time location information.
GM then sold that driving data to brokers like LexisNexis and Verisk, who packaged it for insurance companies that used it to raise premiums and deny coverage.
After a New York Times exposé, a Texas lawsuit revealed GM had harvested data from more than 14 million vehicles, and in January 2026, as part of a $12.75 million lawsuit, the FTC banned GM from sharing this data with consumer reporting agencies for five years.
The harm was real and hard to escape. One careful driver with no accidents saw his rate climb 21% off a 130-page report on six months of his driving, and owners had no meaningful way to keep the car's connectivity while turning the tracking off.
GM turned millions of drivers into a product and settled for a number it can easily afford, which tells you fines alone won't fix this. What moves the needle is people knowing, so the reason we log every case is simple: informed customers are the one thing these companies can't quietly design around.
FULU's takeaway
GM collected data from more than 14 million vehicles, sold it through brokers to insurers who raised drivers' rates, and gave owners no meaningful way to keep connectivity while turning tracking off, all under a feature marketed as free.
Why this is a law problem
Most of these entries involve a digital lock guarding copyrighted software, and a lock like that sits under Section 1201 of the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. 1201. Subsection 1201(a)(1) makes it unlawful to bypass a lock that controls access to a copyrighted work, even when no copyright is infringed. Subsections 1201(a)(2) and 1201(b)(1) separately ban making or distributing the tools that do the bypassing.
Every three years the Librarian of Congress can exempt narrow classes of uses from the first ban. An exemption expires after three years and has to be re-argued, and the rulemaking has no authority over the tool bans, so a granted exemption still leaves no lawful supplier for the means to use it. FULU exists to reform or revoke this statute.
If you want this law changed, donations fund the work. FULU is a 501(c)(4). Donations to FULU are not tax-deductible, which is the tradeoff for being able to lobby without a limit.
Nothing on these pages says any company named here violated Section 1201. FULU is not a law firm, and this is not legal advice.
The original post
The slides below are the originals as posted. Where a slide and the text on this page disagree, go by the text; the text is the corrected, sourced record. Some slides also print an old wiki address that no longer works. The links on this page are current.
Originally published as an Instagram carousel on Sep 07, 2026: See Instagram post.
More entries
Aug 24, 2026
Ubisoft killed a game you bought, even though the PHYSICAL COPY promised access until 2099.
Ubisoft killed a game you bought, even though the PHYSICAL COPY promised access until 2099.
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