Car insurance tracking devices are telematics tools, either a plug-in dongle, a phone app, or your vehicle's own built-in connected service, that monitor how you drive in exchange for a possible discount. They record speed, hard braking, rapid acceleration, sharp cornering, time of day, mileage, and often phone handling and precise location. The main risks are that the data can raise your rate rather than lower it, that it can be used against you in a claim after a crash, and that it can travel to parties you never dealt with. That last risk stopped being theoretical: federal regulators finalized an enforcement order in 2026 against an automaker that sold driving data to consumer reporting agencies, which insurers then used to price and deny coverage.
Enrollment in insurer-sponsored usage-based insurance programs is generally voluntary, although connected-vehicle data collection through an automaker may operate under separate enrollment and consent terms. For many drivers, the potential discount is real. The question is what data you agree to provide in exchange for it.
The answer matters most after a crash, when the same data an insurer used to price your policy becomes evidence in a car accident claim. What follows is what these programs capture, how the data moves, what happens to it after a crash, and the questions worth asking before you opt in.
What Are Car Insurance Tracking Devices?
Three delivery methods, one underlying idea.
Plug-in devices connect to the OBD-II port and read from the vehicle directly. Phone apps use the handset's accelerometer, gyroscope, and GPS, so they can also detect phone handling during a trip. Built-in connected services come from the automaker, are already installed, and are enabled through the vehicle's own app or infotainment system.
The third is where drivers get surprised. A plug-in device is a physical object you agreed to install. A manufacturer feature can be switched on during vehicle setup or a software update, and the enrollment screen may not make clear what is collected or where it goes.
What Can These Programs Actually Collect?
Metrics vary by carrier, but the common set includes
- Speed, sometimes compared against posted limits for the road you are on
- Hard braking and rapid acceleration, measured against a threshold the insurer sets
- Cornering forces and sharp turns
- Time of day: late-night driving is frequently scored as higher risk
- Total mileage and trip frequency
- Phone handling during trips, for app-based programs
- Precise location, which most programs need in order to function at all
Location is the one that matters most and gets the least attention. A program that knows every route you drive also knows where you sleep, work, worship, and seek medical care. That is a different category of information than a braking score, and it is the piece regulators have focused on.
Phone-based programs carry a further limitation. A handset detects motion, not who is operating the vehicle, so time spent as a passenger, in a rideshare, or on a train can register as driving unless the system correctly sorts it out.
How Tracking Data Affects Your Rates
Most programs advertise a participation discount, but how the driving score affects the ultimate premium varies by carrier, program, and state. Some programs are discount-only, while others may permit a higher premium based on telematics results where allowed under applicable state insurance law and approved rating rules. The program terms should explain how the score may affect the policy, but those terms remain subject to applicable state law.
The scoring itself has a structural problem worth understanding: the data records what your car did, not why.
Brake hard because a child ran into the street and the system logs a hard braking event. Swerve to avoid a collision, and it logs aggressive cornering. Drive home at midnight from a hospital shift, and it logs a high-risk late-night operation. The safe, correct action scores against you, because the sensor sees force and time, not context.
Can Tracking Data Be Used After a Car Accident?
Yes, and this is where the stakes rise from a few dollars a month to the value of an injury claim.
If you enrolled in a telematics program, your insurer or a third-party service provider may possess driving data relevant to the period surrounding a collision, depending on what the program collects and retains. Whether your insurer may access and use that information in handling your claim depends on the policy, the telematics agreement, applicable privacy and insurance law, and the circumstances of the claim. If litigation follows, relevant telematics data may also be sought through discovery, subject to applicable rules governing relevance, proportionality, privilege, privacy, possession or control, and objections to production.
The data can help you. A record showing you were under the limit and braked appropriately can corroborate your account when the other driver says otherwise. But telematics information can become important evidence after a crash. Who may access or use it, and whether additional consent, legal process, or another form of authorization is required, depends on how the data was collected, the governing agreements, applicable privacy and insurance law, and whether litigation has begun.
Your Car Records Crash Data Even Without a Program
Declining a tracking program does not mean your vehicle records nothing. Most modern light vehicles contain an event data recorder, and it works on entirely different rules.
Federal regulation does not generally require manufacturers to install an EDR, but 49 C.F.R. Part 563 establishes standardized requirements for covered light vehicles that are equipped with one. The linked Part 563 rule is sometimes summarized as typically 30 seconds or less, but for specified timed pre-crash elements, the existing federal requirements call for 5 seconds of data before time zero at 2 samples per second, including vehicle speed, throttle or accelerator position, and brake application. NHTSA has adopted expanded requirements, increasing specified pre-crash data collection to 20 seconds at 10 samples per second. Under a 2026 implementation rule, that requirement phases in beginning September 1, 2028, reaching 100 percent of applicable vehicles on and after September 1, 2031.
Two distinctions matter for a claim. An EDR is designed primarily to preserve data associated with a crash event rather than create a continuous history of ordinary driving, while telematics systems may collect information across many trips and associate it with a vehicle, device, or account. Federal law also specifically restricts access to EDR data. Under the Driver Privacy Act of 2015, EDR data is the property of the vehicle owner, or the lessee of a leased vehicle, and generally may not be accessed by someone else without the owner's or lessee's consent, authorization from a court or other qualifying authority, or another statutory exception. Retrieval methods vary by vehicle and system.
What Privacy Risks Should Drivers Consider?
The concern is no longer speculative, because regulators have now acted on it twice.
In January 2026 the FTC finalized a 20-year order against General Motors and OnStar, settling allegations that they collected and sold precise geolocation and driving behavior data from millions of vehicles without adequately notifying drivers or obtaining consent. The agency alleged the enrollment process was misleading, that some drivers did not know they had been signed up, and that the data went to consumer reporting agencies, which fed it to insurers. The Commission described the conduct as an egregious betrayal of consumer trust. The order bans sharing that data with consumer reporting agencies for five years and requires affirmative express consent, data access and deletion rights, and a way to opt out.
A second front opened over app-based tracking. In January 2025 the Texas attorney general sued multiple Allstate and Arity entities, alleging that tracking software embedded in consumer apps collected driving and location data from more than 45 million consumers nationwide and that the information was used or sold for insurance purposes. In April 2025, the Texas trial court dismissed The Allstate Corporation and Arity 875 LLC from the case for lack of personal jurisdiction. Other named Allstate and Arity entities were not dismissed by that particular order, and Texas appealed the dismissal of Arity 875 LLC.
The same allegations are now being litigated in federal court, and they are surviving. In March 2026 a judge allowed wiretap, credit reporting, consumer protection, and privacy claims to proceed past dismissal in consolidated class litigation. One allegation the court highlighted should concern anyone who has ever ridden in a car: the software tracked phone movement with no reliable way to tell whether the person holding the phone was driving at all, so a passenger could be scored as a driver.
Read together, these actions describe the same pipeline: driving behavior collected in one context, sold into another, and used to price or deny coverage for people who never knowingly agreed to any of it.
Should You Use a Car Insurance Tracking Device?
It depends on your driving pattern, not on whether you consider yourself a good driver. Before enrolling, get answers to these:
- Can my rate go up, or is this discount-only? The single most important question, and the answer is in the program terms.
- What exactly is measured, and where are the thresholds? A braking threshold you cannot see is one you cannot avoid crossing.
- Is precise location collected, and can I turn that off separately?
- Who else receives this data? Affiliates, analytics subsidiaries, and consumer reporting agencies are the categories to ask about by name.
- How long is it retained, and can I get it deleted if I leave?
- Will it be used in claims handling? Including claims where you are the one seeking payment.
Drivers with short, daytime, low-mileage commutes usually come out ahead. Night-shift workers, rideshare and delivery drivers, people in dense traffic where hard braking is unavoidable, and long highway commuters often do not.
How a Car Accident Lawyer Can Help
When telematics data enters a claim, the questions are whether it was interpreted fairly, whether the full record was produced or only the unhelpful portion, and whether the insurer's reading of a braking event actually matches what happened on the road. Sorting that out is one of the things working closely with your attorney makes easier, since you know what you were doing on the road and the data does not. Data that looks damaging in a summary often looks different in context, alongside the police report, the scene evidence, and the vehicle's own crash recorder.
Frequently Asked Questions About Car Insurance Tracking Devices
Can My Insurance Company Raise My Rates Based on Tracking Data?
It depends on the program and applicable state law. Some are structured so participation can only earn a discount, while others may allow a surcharge or higher premium at renewal based on the driving score where permitted under applicable state insurance law and approved rating rules. The enrollment terms should explain how the score may affect your premium, but those terms remain subject to applicable state law. Ask directly whether the program is discount-only and get the answer in writing if the marketing materials are vague.
Does the Tracking Device Know Why I Braked Hard?
No. It registers the force and the timing, not the reason. Braking to avoid a child, a deer, or a car running a red light produces the same data signature as careless driving. Some carriers account for these factors in scoring, and others do not. This is one reason a low score does not mean unsafe driving, and it is worth raising if a renewal increase seems disconnected from your actual record.
Can I Remove the Device or Quit the Program?
Usually yes. Plug-in devices can be unplugged and returned, apps can be deleted, and built-in features can generally be disabled in vehicle settings. Leaving may forfeit the discount, and some programs have a minimum monitoring period. Cancelling does not automatically delete data already collected, so ask separately about deletion. Recent federal enforcement has pushed automakers toward providing access and deletion rights.
Will My Driving Data Be Used if I File an Injury Claim?
It can be. Whether your insurer may access and use telematics data in handling your own claim depends on the policy, the telematics agreement, applicable privacy and insurance law, and the circumstances of the claim. In litigation, the opposing side may seek relevant telematics data through discovery, subject to applicable rules governing relevance, proportionality, privilege, privacy, possession or control, and objections to production. The data cuts both ways and sometimes supports your account of the crash. What matters is that it is read in full and in context rather than reduced to a single unflattering data point.
Call Brandon J. Broderick For Legal Help
A discount on your premium should not cost you the value of a claim later.
Our team handles car accident claims where telematics, event data recorder downloads, and other electronic evidence are part of the picture. We obtain the complete record rather than the portion an insurer chooses to share, put the data alongside the physical evidence, and push back when a braking event gets characterized as recklessness. Reach out today for a free consultation.