Tonya Riley and Cassandre Coyer report:
Carmakers are in the crosshairs of state enforcers, with California becoming the latest to target the industry’s data practices.
The California Privacy Protection Agency announced on Wednesday an enforcement action and settlement accusing American Honda Motor Co. Inc. of violating state privacy law. Honda required consumers to provide excessive personal information for privacy requests and created obstacles for users seeking to opt out of cookie tracking, according to the CPPA.
As part of the settlement, the company agreed to pay more than $600,000 and make changes to its consumer privacy practices.
California follows a pair of separate disputes by Texas and Arkansas against General Motors Co. and its subsidiary OnStar LLC under the states’ consumer-protection laws, alleging deceptive practices by collecting and selling drivers’ data to third-party data brokers. The brokers, not named in the dispute, then sold the data to insurance companies that used the information to increase insurance rates.
The settlement is the CPPA’s first public enforcement action under the comprehensive California Consumer Privacy Act and, combined with actions by other states’ attorneys general, a warning to the automotive industry.
Read more at Bloomberg Law.