Suryaa Business Desk: The famous automobile giant General Motors (GM) has faced a huge setback in America. Violating users' personal privacy,... The famous automobile giant General Motors (GM) has faced a huge setback in America. The company is set to pay a heavy price for violating users' personal privacy and illegally collecting and selling their driving habits and location information to third parties.
GM has agreed to pay a settlement of about $220 million as part of an agreement with US authorities to end the legal dispute and settle the case. The development has created quite a stir in the automobile sector in the wake of concerns over user data privacy through inbuilt technology and connected car services in modern cars. The main charge against the company is that it has automatically collected sensitive information like journey details, speed, braking style through the connected systems of its cars without giving any clear prior information to the motorists or obtaining express permission (consent) from them. Regulators concluded that GM profited by selling the driving data collected in this way to insurance companies and marketing agencies.
Federal regulators have expressed outrage over the company's actions to encroach on consumers' digital rights and violate privacy laws. Along with a hefty fine, the court also ordered GM to follow strict rules on the way it collects consumer data in the future. While enabling connected service features in cars, the rules have been imposed to provide clear information to the users to ensure complete transparency and not to share any personal data to others without their consent. Automobile experts point out that this incident is a big lesson in how much priority should be given to users' privacy while adding cutting-edge technology in car manufacturing.