Link: https://www.theautopian.com/gm-allegedly-spied-on-drivers-and-sold-their-data-now-its-paying-a-220m-settlement/

If you had a suspicion your modern car is spying on you, you’re probably right. Vehicles these days are connected to the Internet of Things, able to feed data back to the cloud in real time. Once it’s there, what happens next may not be something you explicitly agreed to. Now the tide is starting…

Just one more reason to never buy garbage american cars. I learned my lesson after my first. Never trust american companies, ever.

that $220M is pennies compared to what they got from selling that data

yep just an information sales tax 😂 basically another government endorsed trade channel

General Motors reported a net income attributable to stockholders of $2.7 billion for the year 2025, which was a significant decline from $6 billion in 2024.

Other companies from other countries do this as well. You shouldn't trust any car maker.

I only want my data extracted by honorable japanese capitalists, not american pig capitalist

https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/

I'd much rather have my info taken by a foreign company than an american one.

That doesn't address his point. Just because they suck in every other part of their business doesn't mean they failed to make lots of money off your data.

Serious question, what new car can I buy that won't spy on me and send all my data to the manufacturer? I'll be in the market for a new car in a couple of years, and I've had a hard time finding anything where this wasn't an issue.

That's the spirit!

I'd much rather have my info taken by neither a US-American one, nor another foreign one. I want my info to be taken exclusively by Swiss bankers! Their extortion letters look better than the others'.

I genuinely don't know. I drive a 2017 Japanese car that I don't believe collects telemetry or data of any kind. I plan to drive this car until the wheels fall off.

I prefer the VW. Yeah, they are clearly trying to collect everything they can, but I think their software corrupts the data. I mean something is happening that they can't seem to make money off anything. Waiting until the battery warrenty is up to mess with anything that could take it off their grid.

a car that's not meant to be sold anywhere in the western world. there's too much profit in collecting and sell all of your data for any corporation to pass up -- just like w phones.

You might be surprised. I have a 2017 chevy and it definitely does report data back to GM. I have a close friend that works there and was able to confirm this. I thought there was no way since it was old, and it has no internet access of any kind that I can see. But it uses the cell network to report back data. I suspect it reports alot less interesting data than new cars. But for sure, it is sending data back to GM over the cell network.

protip: the modem on some cars can be disabled by pulling the fuse.

Which car is that? Because I guarantee Asian manufacturers spy on you just the same.

Honestly, I'd suggest first finding which cars have guides to remove or disable that shit and go from there.