Ford says it will not sell driving data to brokers or insurers, days after GM agreed to pay $220 million over claims that it did exactly that.
Ford said Monday that it will not sell data on how its customers drive to data brokers or insurance companies. The company calls it the Ford Privacy Promise. It came days after General Motors agreed to pay $220 million to settle claims that it sold drivers' location and behavior data.
Ford also launched a website that explains what its vehicles collect and how to change the settings. The company said these controls have existed for years but were hard to find. Customers can opt out of sharing any connected data. The catch is that opting out turns off some features.
Kristin Jones, Ford's chief privacy officer, told Automotive News that a customer who shares nothing can create a quasi-'80s mode car. Ford cited a survey of about 1,000 U.S. consumers. It found that 91% rated data privacy as highly important, while 56% would share some data for certain features.
Attorneys general from 36 states said GM enrolled millions of drivers in a program called Smart Driver between 2016 and 2024 and sold their data without proper consent. They said brokers passed the information to insurers, which adjusted premiums. The New York Times first exposed the practice in a 2024 investigation. GM ended the program in April 2024.
The settlement, announced October 29, requires GM to collect less data and get express consent. GM said the case concerns a product it ended in 2024. In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission barred GM from sharing such data with consumer reporting agencies. It was the agency's first action over connected vehicle data.
A modern connected car produces close to 25 gigabytes of data an hour, according to S&P Global Mobility. Brokers buy, bundle and resell location and behavior records. Defense officials have warned that this market can expose people in uniform. A Defense Department spokesperson said in 2023 that such data raises security risks, including threats from adversaries.
A 2023 Duke University study, funded in part by West Point, found researchers could buy data on about 50,000 service members for as little as 12 cents a person. Some records could indicate where a member was stationed.
Check your carmaker's privacy settings and look for a page that explains what your vehicle collects. Know the trade-off before you opt out, because features may stop working. The material does not say whether other automakers will make a similar promise.
A separate lawsuit against GM over the same data practices is still pending in Texas. California officials said GM earned about $20 million nationwide selling the data before the program ended.
Your car may log how and where you drive, so review your carmaker's privacy settings and know that opting out can turn off features.
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