Published: April 25th, 2025
General Motors is arguing that it can sell your data because you drive your car in public.
Yes, seriously.
Now, I am not a lawyer, but I occasionally pretend to be one to win an argument. Putting on my pretend lawyer hat, I think GM's argument is ridiculous.
I do understand that once we step out into public, we don't really have a reasonable expectation of privacy. That makes sense. But I also think there's a difference between the data your car is collecting and you walking down a public street.
As you walk down the street, you're visible to others around you. However, your car's data is, in theory, being stored in a computer in the car and not being shared, certainly not without your consent.
GM argues that because your speed and location and route are visible to observers, you have no right to privacy when it comes to this type of data being collected and potentially sold. In other words, since someone on the sidewalk can see where you are and get an approximate sense of how fast you're going, you shouldn't expect that GM will keep your data and not sell it.
I disagree on this, for several reasons. For one thing, an observer can't measure data precisely the way the computer can. He or she can guess at your speed, but might be way off. He or she doesn't know where you came from or where you're going. He or she probably won't even remember you unless you did something unusual. Your car, meanwhile, will save your location, route, and speed for at least some period of time.
Finally, the person watching you drive by has no consistent way to sell that information to make money.
So, to me, just because people can see you driving, it's not the same thing as being in public view, not when it comes to the data being collected. I think GM is in the wrong here.
But I am neither a lawyer nor a judge. Legally speaking, I could be wrong. Philosophically, I could also be wrong. I could also be "correct" from a philosophical point of view but legally wrong -- sometimes our laws don't match what most people would consider to be "right."
So, if you know the law better than I, go ahead and tell me I am right or wrong. And for the non lawyers out there, let's argue the philosophical angles.
What a way to enter the weekend.
Anyway, sound off below.
[Image: Chevrolet/GM]
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Tim Healey
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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