How to Protect Your Privacy From Car Insurance Tracking

Your car may be reporting more about you than you realize. Between insurance telematics programs and connected car data sharing, detailed records of your driving habits — where you go, how fast you drive, how hard you brake, and even whether you touch your phone — are being collected, stored, and in some cases shared with third parties without your meaningful consent. Here is what you need to know about car insurance tracking and how to take back control of your driving data.

How Car Insurance Tracking Works

There are two main ways insurers collect detailed driving data, and understanding the difference is critical to protecting yourself.

Opt-In Telematics Programs

Many major insurers offer voluntary telematics programs that promise lower premiums in exchange for monitoring your driving. Common programs include:

• Progressive Snapshot: Uses a mobile app or plug-in device to track braking, acceleration, time of day, and mileage
• State Farm Drive Safe & Save: Monitors driving behavior through a mobile app connected to your vehicle's Bluetooth or OnStar system
• GEICO DriveEasy: Uses your smartphone's sensors to measure braking, acceleration, cornering, speed, phone use, and trip timing
• Allstate Drivewise: Tracks similar metrics and provides a driving score used to calculate discounts

These programs are marketed as optional, but the data they collect is extraordinarily detailed. According to the FTC, some telematics systems record location data as frequently as every three seconds, creating a near-complete map of everywhere you drive.

Connected Car Data Sharing

This is the more alarming channel. Modern vehicles equipped with connected services — GM OnStar, Toyota Connected Services, Ford SYNC, and others — collect driving data continuously as a built-in function of the car. The critical difference is that this data can be shared with insurers and data brokers even if you never signed up for a telematics program.

A 2024 New York Times investigation revealed that GM's OnStar system had been sharing detailed driving records — including trip-level data on hard braking, rapid acceleration, and speeding — with data analytics companies LexisNexis and Verisk. These companies then sold driving behavior reports to insurance companies, which used them to adjust premiums. Many drivers had no idea their car was reporting on them.

Where Your Driving Data Goes

Once collected, your driving data can flow through a surprisingly long chain:

1. Your vehicle manufacturer collects the raw data through connected car systems
2. Data analytics companies like LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk receive and process the data into driving behavior scores and reports
3. Insurance companies purchase these reports to set premiums, deny claims, or decide whether to renew your policy
4. Data brokers may acquire driving data and combine it with other personal information to build more detailed consumer profiles

The result is that a single hard-braking event recorded by your car's sensors can ultimately affect the price you pay for insurance — even if you never opted into any monitoring program.

The Regulatory Landscape

Legal protections around driving data privacy are evolving but remain incomplete:

FTC Action Against GM

The Federal Trade Commission reached a consent order with General Motors requiring the company to offer drivers a clear opt-out option for the collection and sharing of geolocation and driver behavior data. This was a landmark enforcement action, but it applies specifically to GM and does not create a blanket rule for the industry.

State Legislative Activity

Five states — Maryland, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee — introduced telematics privacy bills in 2026, seeking to require explicit consumer consent before driving data can be shared with insurers or third parties. Meanwhile, 15 states have followed California's lead in enacting broader consumer privacy laws that give residents some rights over their personal data, including driving records held by commercial entities.

No Federal Telematics Law Yet

There is currently no comprehensive federal law specifically governing the collection and sale of telematics or connected car driving data. The existing patchwork of state laws means your protections depend heavily on where you live.

How to Protect Your Driving Data Privacy

1. Check Your Connected Car Data Sharing Settings

Log into your vehicle manufacturer's connected services portal or app — such as myChevrolet, FordPass, Toyota Connected Services, or MyBMW. Navigate to the privacy or data sharing settings and look for options to:

• Disable data sharing with third parties
• Opt out of marketing and analytics data collection
• Turn off location tracking when not needed for navigation
• Request deletion of previously collected driving data

These settings are often buried in submenus or labeled in vague terms like "connected services analytics" or "vehicle health reports." Take the time to review every option.

2. Think Carefully Before Enrolling in Telematics Programs

The promised discount (typically 5-25%) may not be worth the privacy trade-off. Before enrolling, ask your insurer:

• Exactly what data will be collected and how frequently
• Whether the data can be used to increase your premium, not just decrease it
• How long the data is retained after you leave the program
• Whether the data is shared with any third parties, including data brokers

3. Request Your Driving Data Reports

You can request your consumer disclosure report from LexisNexis and Verisk to see what driving data they hold about you. LexisNexis provides a free annual report through their consumer disclosure page. If you find inaccurate or unexpected data, you have the right to dispute it.

4. Read Insurance Privacy Statements Carefully

Before signing up for a new auto insurance policy or renewing an existing one, read the privacy statement and data collection disclosures. Look specifically for language about telematics, driving data, third-party data sources, and data sharing with affiliates or partners. If the language is vague, ask your agent for clarification in writing.

5. Opt Out of Data Broker Profiles

LexisNexis, Verisk, and other data analytics companies that handle driving data are part of the broader data broker ecosystem. Request deletion of your personal information from these companies and from people-search sites that may combine your driving data with other personal details like your home address and phone number.

6. Support Stronger Legislation

Contact your state representatives and express support for telematics privacy legislation. The bills introduced in 2026 in Maryland, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee represent a growing push for explicit consent requirements — but they need public support to pass.

Automate Your Data Broker Removals

Driving data is just one piece of the personal information that data brokers collect about you. Your home address, phone number, email, employment history, and financial indicators are all being aggregated and sold alongside your driving records. PrivacyOn monitors over 100 data broker and people-search sites for your personal information and automatically submits removal requests whenever your data is found — including records held by companies like LexisNexis that participate in the driving data ecosystem. Continuous monitoring starting at $8.33 per month means your data gets removed and stays removed, even as brokers refresh their databases.