Indiana
Indiana sues GM, OnStar over data-selling practices
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana’s attorney general has sued General Motors and OnStar, accusing them of collecting and selling personal data to third parties with consent, just a couple of months after the Federal Trade Commission settled its complaint with the automaker and its subsidiary.
The lawsuit, announced Thursday from the office of Todd Rokita, follows similar ones that the attorney generals of Arkansas and Texas have filed. The Arkansas lawsuit says GM and OnStar sold data that included the geolocation data, the GM app usage data, and the driving behavior data of more than 100,000 residents of the Southern state.
Amid the states’ actions, multiple class action lawsuits have been filed against GM and OnStar over the same issues, arguing data was sold to LexisNexis without consent, potentially leading to increased insurance premiums.
OnStar sells a subscription-based communications system in GM vehicles that offers, among its services, a link to emergency services and roadside assistance when needed, Wi-Fi connectivity, turn-by-turn navigation, and remote diagnostics.
As lawsuit began piling up, GM ended its business with LexisNexis and Verisk. In an agreement reached with the Federal Trade Commission announced Jan. 16, GM also eliminated the Smart Driver program in all of its vehicles, and started a review of its privacy processes and policies. It also created a process to allow consumers to submit a privacy request to last for 20 years.
Indiana filed its 69-page lawsuit March 19 in Marion Superior Court 6, according to its time stamp. It alleged GM and OnStar violated the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act in selling telematics information — such as vehicle speed, hard braking events, and geolocation — from its Smart Driver system without consent. Then, third-party brokers used the data to create risk profiles and driving scores, which were sold to insurance companies. These companies, in turn, used the information to increase premiums or deny insurance coverage to consumers.
“Defendants profited from its data mining and data sharing activities to the detriment of the very customers to whom their telematics technology and associated programs were advertised to help,” the Indiana lawsuit says.
Indiana’s lawsuit also accused GM and OnStar of using deceptive “dark patterns” during the onboarding process to maximize consumer enrollment in their programs without fully disclosing privacy policies.
The state wants a jury trial and, if successful, seeks civil penalties of up to $5,500 for each violation of the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Act.
The lawsuit cites anonymous complaints from social media, reports from The New York Times, and other news sources. Indiana’s lawsuit does not say, though, how many complaints the state has received. However, in a news release issued Thursday, the Office of the Indiana Attorney General asks Hoosiers who believe they have been affected to file complaints online or by calling 800-382-5516.
Rokita, a Republican, said in a statement in a news release issued Thursday, “Everyone deserves transparency and honesty from the companies they do business with, especially when it comes to having their data protected. General Motors and OnStar turned a supposed safety feature into a way to make money, profiting off Indiana drivers without their knowledge.”
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man is dead after a shooting Thursday night on Indy’s near east side, police say.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 8 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on a report of a person shot.
When officers arrived, they found an adult male inside an apartment with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in critical condition, where died shortly after arriving.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene to begin the investigation.
Crime Resources
Gov. Mike Braun asked state regulators to reconsider their decision to greenlight a $71 million rate increase for AES Indiana, doubling down on his condemnation of a move that could leave Indianapolis residents with higher electrical bills for years.
Braun wrote in a June 18 news release that he had asked Indiana Utility Counselor Abby Gray, who heads the office representing ratepayers in proceedings before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, to petition for a rehearing of the AES rate case.
Gray indicated in the release that her office would submit the petition shortly. No petition had been posted on the IURC’s online docket as of this story’s publication.
The rate increase, which was approved by the IURC on June 17, was substantially less than the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It was also less than the amount proposed in a settlement last October between AES and major electricity consumers.
But the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, which Gray leads, came out strongly against any increase to AES’s base rates. In September, the OUCC called for a $21 million reduction instead.
As the Republican Party grapples with rising discontent over affordability, Braun has used opposition to rising utility rates to telegraph that he’s committed to keeping costs down for Indiana residents. He signed a law in February that allows the state to make rate-setting decisions that reward or penalize utilities based on metrics including affordability.
In March, he told reporters that he would take on Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities, describing himself as the “new sheriff in town.”
And after the IURC voted 3-1 to approve the AES rate increase, he wrote in a post to X that he was “deeply disappointed.”
Braun wrote in the June 18 news release that he had appointed Gray, a longtime OUCC lawyer and judge, to her current post because he knew she “would help me fight for Hoosiers.”
According to AES’s estimates, the rate increase will cost households an additional $5 per month for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity they use, beginning in July. A second hike will take effect in January.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
The Protect College Sports Act, legislation meant to introduce and codify sweeping reforms related to college athletics, passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday morning.
It now heads to the Senate floor.
The bill passed out of committee by a 19-9 vote. Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young voted no, his decision reflecting Big Ten concerns over the bill.
A spokesman for Sen. Young told IndyStar, “Senator Young hopes that additional changes can be made to the bill to address concerns raised by the Big Ten.”
Co-sponsored by Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), the Protect College Sports Act represents Congress’ most substantial success so far in a yearslong effort to bring legislative reform to college athletics. Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders in college sports — including the NCAA, member conferences and schools, and other major players — have lobbied for national solutions to what have become state and regional problems.
Several pieces of legislation have been introduced across the last several years, only to fizzle long before reaching the floor of either chamber. The SCORE Act, introduced last year in the House of Representatives, gained some traction and passed out of committee, but was never brought to the floor.
Which makes Thursday’s news meaningful. Moving the Protect College Sports Act to the Senate floor, while not a guarantee of any outcome, potentially takes the bill past a threshold no other such piece of reformative legislation has yet been able to cross.
Cruz told Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger on Thursday that Cruz believes Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is committed to introducing the bill to the Senate floor soon.
The bill provides a legal framework for a host of potential reforms and protections for college sports. It grants limited antitrust protection to the NCAA, places limits on certain things including potential conference realignment, builds safeguards meant to protect non-revenue and Olympic sports, addresses potential broadcast rights reforms, and more.
It enjoys significant backing, and not just among leaders in college sports. This week, the NFL, its players’ association, the National Basketball Players Association and Major League Baseball all voiced their support for the bill.
Two key constituencies not in lockstep on the bill voiced their own concerns Thursday.
In a joint statement issued just after 10 a.m. Thursday, the Big Ten and SEC — far and away the two most powerful conferences and arguably two greatest power centers, full stop, in college athletics — suggested they still hold significant reservations over the bill.
“From the outset, we identified a set of essential revisions to the PCSA necessary for the long-term sustainability of college athletics,” the statement read. “We have worked with both majority and minority staff to advance those revisions, which focus on better supporting student-athletes and stabilizing the college sports environment. We continue to believe revisions are needed to secure our support for the bill.
“Despite our sustained engagement and good faith efforts, these critical revisions have not been accepted.”
The statement went on to note the “several Commerce Committee members that share our concerns and support these recommendations.”
Young is one of several members of the committee representing a Big Ten state, including one of three Republicans. He is the only Republican member of the committee whose state contains multiple schools in the conference.
Allowing for those reservations, Thursday’s news is still significant. It marks the first time a bipartisan bill on the subject has reached this point in the Senate and, should it be brought to the floor, it would be the first such legislation to reach that stage, in either chamber.
The bill could be brought to the Senate floor as early as July, though that timeline remains fluid.
-
Nevada6 minutes agoCaltech readies to build world’s most sensitive radio telescope in Nevada
-
New Hampshire9 minutes agoTransgender former New Hampshire state representative sentenced to 33 years for child sex abuse: report
-
New Jersey14 minutes agoYellowcard Brings Ocean Avenue to New Jersey’s Own Ocean Avenue
-
New Mexico21 minutes agoEdgewood and Santa Fe County finalize agreement to keep emergency services going
-
North Carolina24 minutes ago‘Infuriating, heartbreaking’: Raccoon recovering after getting caught in leg trap at Mecklenburg County park
-
North Dakota29 minutes agoOne year later, tornado survivors rebuild and remember
-
Ohio36 minutes ago
Lorain woman killed, three children injured in Ohio Turnpike crash in Elyria (UPDATED)
-
Oklahoma39 minutes agoOklahoma lawmakers ask Supreme Court to let customers join ONG rate hike case
