What Car Insurance Companies Know About Your Driving

Say you just opened a renewal notice and the rate jumped 12 percent. You didn't get a ticket. You didn't file a claim. Your credit didn't move. So why the bump?

Most drivers picture their insurer as a company that prices based on age, ZIP, and driving record. That's half the picture. What car insurance companies know about your driving today is a much wider net: a quiet network of data flowing from your car, your apps, and data brokers straight into your premium. Only about 28% of policyholders even know their insurer runs a driving-behavior monitoring program [1].

This guide breaks down the three buckets of data your insurer actually uses, shows you how they get it, and walks through the five things you can do to take control. By the end, you'll have a clearer sense of whether the data trail explains why your rate feels off, and whether you're paying more than you should for car insurance.

What Car Insurance Companies Actually Collect: The Three Data Buckets

When people hear "insurance data," they picture one thing: the little plug-in device from a "save 25 percent" ad. It's actually three distinct streams, and your rate can be affected by any of them.

1. Your driving record. Sourced from state DMVs and claims databases. Traditional, long-standing, governed by federal credit-reporting rules.
2. Your connected car. Data transmitted directly from the car's onboard modem, usually captured under an automaker account you set up for remote start or emergency services.
3. Your third-party behavior scores. Data from voluntary driving apps, data brokers, and insurance-credit agencies that aggregate everything above into a sellable score.

Most articles on this topic lump them together. That's the mistake. Each bucket is collected differently, governed by different rules, and opted out of differently. Our companion guide on usage-based insurance programs goes deeper on voluntary telematics, but start here for the full picture of what your insurer may already know.

Bucket 1: Your Driving Record (MVR and CLUE)

This is the oldest bucket and the one most drivers accept without question. When you apply for a policy, you sign a clause letting your insurer pull your Motor Vehicle Record from your state DMV. That record shows license status, moving violations, and in most states the last 3 to 7 years of traffic history. Insurers pull it at initial underwriting and typically re-pull at renewal.

There's a second, separate file most drivers have never heard of: the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, or C.L.U.E. report. It's operated by LexisNexis Risk Solutions and holds up to seven years of auto insurance claims history across every carrier, not just your current one [2]. Your insurer checks it before quoting you. If a claim was filed at your address by anyone on a prior policy, it can show up in your file.

Both the MVR and the C.L.U.E. report are "consumer reports" under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. That means you have a right to request a free copy once a year, and to dispute anything that looks wrong. Errors happen more often than you'd expect, from accidents miscoded as at-fault to policies still showing you as a household member years after a move.

Bucket 2: Your Connected Car (Data From the Automaker)

This is the bucket most drivers do not know exists. Since roughly 2018, most new vehicles in the U.S. ship with an embedded cellular modem that transmits data to the automaker by default. Precise location, speed, hard braking, acceleration, trip start and end points, and in some cases in-vehicle activity. The Federal Trade Commission has publicly warned that this data is sensitive consumer information, on par with data from your phone [3].

The landmark case is FTC v. General Motors and OnStar. In January 2025, the FTC filed a complaint alleging that data from roughly 9 million vehicles had been collected and sold to consumer reporting agencies without clear consumer consent, sometimes at a sampling rate of every three seconds [4]. The final order was entered in January 2026. Under a 20-year consent order, GM and OnStar are barred for five years from disclosing sensitive geolocation and driving-behavior data to consumer reporting agencies, and must obtain affirmative express consent before sharing that data with third parties [5].

Say you bought a new car last year and the salesperson walked you through the app setup so you could unlock remote start. Buried in that setup were separate toggles for connected services, for data sharing with partners, and for research use. Flipping one does not flip the others. The FTC order changed the rules for GM; it has not changed them for every automaker.

Connected cars also contain a federally mandated Event Data Recorder, often called a black box. Under NHTSA rules codified at 49 CFR Part 563, EDRs capture pre-crash data. An updated rule published in December 2024 will extend that recording window from 5 seconds at 2 Hz to 20 seconds at 10 Hz, with a compliance date of September 2027 for most manufacturers [6]. EDR data is typically accessed after a crash, often during a claims investigation, and it can be used to support or dispute the version of events in your claim. If you're weighing a voluntary telematics option, our pay-per-mile car insurance guide walks through when that kind of program actually saves money.

Bucket 3: Your Third-Party Behavior Scores

The third bucket is the invisible middle layer, and it's the one readers on r/privacy and r/Insurance keep describing as "my rate went up and I have no idea why."

The most obvious input is a voluntary telematics program. According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, devices in these programs measure "miles driven, time of day, where the vehicle is driven, rapid acceleration, hard braking, hard cornering, cell phone usage and airbag deployment" [7]. NAIC research shows that fewer than half of drivers are even familiar with usage-based insurance, and actual adoption sits around 6% of auto policies nationally [7].

Beyond voluntary programs, there are two other inputs in this bucket:

• Data from third-party apps. A family location app, a parking app, a workout app that tracks drives, or a roadside assistance app may share driving-behavior summaries with data brokers, which in turn sell them to insurance-credit agencies.
• Aggregated driving scores sold by data brokers. LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Verisk, and similar providers combine data from automakers, apps, and public sources into a driving-behavior score that your insurer can pull the same way it pulls credit. The FTC GM/OnStar complaint describes exactly this pipeline.

Economic research funded through the FTC estimated that the average driver values their driving privacy at about $93 per year, and that the typical monitoring discount comes out to around 7% [8]. Those are averages; the actual number on your policy depends on how your carrier scores you and whether your state limits surcharges at renewal. If you drive well under the average, our low-mileage car insurance discount guide covers the less-data-heavy ways to capture the savings.

How Car Insurance Companies Use What They Know About Your Driving

Data from all three buckets shows up in your premium in three distinct ways, and it helps to see them separately.

At the quote. When you apply with a new carrier, the insurer's underwriting system pulls your MVR, your C.L.U.E. report, and (increasingly) a driving-behavior score from an insurance-credit agency. A bad score from an old app you forgot about can sink a new quote before you ever talk to an agent.

At renewal. If you're enrolled in a telematics program or if your automaker shares data, your renewal rate can shift based on the last 6 to 12 months of driving. Say a data broker's profile shows repeated hard-braking events at 7 a.m. for six months. Your carrier may use that as a risk signal, even if you've had zero tickets and zero claims. Broader industry pressure plays a role too, and our national rate trend data shows how individual rate hikes can run ahead of overall inflation. See also why car insurance rates are going up in 2026 for the full breakdown.

At the claim. EDR data, telematics logs, and connected-car trip records can be subpoenaed or requested by your carrier during a claims investigation. In disputed claims, that data may support your version of events or complicate it. Drivers rarely think about this until they're in a claim.

Your Rights: Federal and State Privacy Tools

The regulatory picture has shifted fast. Here's what's in place right now.

Under federal law: The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to a free annual copy of any consumer report used to price your insurance, and the right to dispute inaccuracies. That includes your C.L.U.E. report and any insurance-credit report a broker sold to your carrier [9]. The FTC GM/OnStar consent order, finalized January 2026, set a new consent bar for connected-car data sold to consumer reporting agencies [5].

Under state law: A growing set of states gives residents general consumer privacy rights that apply to vehicle data. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia laws are already in force. Texas took effect July 1, 2024, and Delaware took effect January 1, 2025. Indiana, Kentucky, and Rhode Island joined on January 1, 2026 [10]. The common rights across these laws are the right to know what's collected, the right to access, the right to delete, and the right to opt out of sale or sharing. Insurance-specific rules are set by each state's insurance department, and many states are now evaluating updates to the NAIC privacy protections model law.

The short version: you have more tools than most drivers realize. You just have to use them.

Five Steps to Take Back Control

1. Pull your LexisNexis C.L.U.E. report. It's free once a year and you can request it through the LexisNexis consumer portal [2]. Read it line by line. Dispute anything that looks wrong in writing.

2. Audit your connected-car settings. Open your automaker's app and look for separate toggles for connected services, third-party data sharing, marketing partners, and research use. Flip off what you didn't ask for. If your automaker is one of the ones covered by a recent FTC order, you also have the right to request your data and have it deleted.

3. Review every driving-related app on your phone. If you enrolled in a telematics program for a starter discount, read the renewal terms. Some states allow surcharges for poor scores; others limit programs to discount-only. Uninstalling alone does not delete your history. Request deletion in writing under your state's privacy law.

4. Check what your state DMV does with your data. Many states sell driver and vehicle records to third parties. Some allow you to opt out. Look up your state DMV's privacy page and file an opt-out if one is available.

5. Re-shop your policy. All the data hygiene in the world doesn't override a carrier that has priced your profile as higher-risk than it actually is. A two-minute quote comparison is the fastest way to test whether another carrier values the same driver profile differently. Our guide to when to switch car insurance covers the triggers that make a switch worth the effort.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do all car insurance companies track your driving?

Not all carriers run a voluntary telematics program, and participation is usually opt-in. Nearly all carriers do pull your Motor Vehicle Record and your C.L.U.E. claims history at initial underwriting, and most re-pull at renewal. If your car has an embedded modem, the automaker may also share data the insurer can purchase.

How do insurance companies check your driving history?

They pull three documents: your Motor Vehicle Record from the state DMV (license, moving violations), your C.L.U.E. report from LexisNexis (up to seven years of insurance claims), and increasingly a driving-behavior score from an insurance-credit agency. All three are consumer reports under the Fair Credit Reporting Act [9].

Will opting out of LexisNexis raise my car insurance rate?

No, at least not directly. Opting out of the LexisNexis marketing file does not remove your C.L.U.E. report, which insurers still use for underwriting. The bigger rate risk comes from disputing or correcting errors in the report, which can lower your rate if the current file overstates your risk. If you're worried about overpaying, the faster check is to compare quotes from other carriers and see whether another insurer values your profile differently.

Can I stop my connected car from sharing data with my insurer?

You can usually limit it, but not eliminate it entirely without affecting safety features. Start in your automaker's app and look for a dedicated "data sharing" section. Toggle off third-party sharing and marketing partners. If your automaker is covered by a recent FTC consent order, you also have the right to request deletion and an opt-out. Emergency-call features and safety-recall notifications may remain on by default.

How far back do insurers check?

Most insurers pull a Motor Vehicle Record covering 3 to 7 years of traffic history, depending on state rules. C.L.U.E. reports include up to seven years of claims activity. Telematics data is typically used for the most recent 6 to 12 months at renewal, though individual carriers set their own lookback.

What is a CLUE report and do I have one?

Yes, if you've held an auto insurance policy in the U.S. in the last seven years, you likely have a C.L.U.E. report. It's a consumer report operated by LexisNexis Risk Solutions that lists your claims history across all carriers, including inquiries that did not result in a paid claim. You can request your report for free once a year and dispute errors in writing.

The Bottom Line

Your insurer already knows a lot about your driving. Some of it, your record and claims history, is collected with your clear consent. Some of it, especially the data flowing out of connected cars and third-party apps, has been collected with the kind of consent the FTC is now challenging in court.

Three things to do this week:

1. Request your C.L.U.E. report and audit it for errors.
2. Open your automaker's app and turn off every data-sharing toggle you don't recognize.
3. Compare quotes at matching coverage to see whether another carrier values the same driver profile differently.

Knowledge shifts the power. Most drivers are quietly overpaying because a profile built from data they never reviewed is pricing them higher than reality. For how QuoteFii uses data in our rate comparisons, see our methodology and data sources. A two-minute comparison is how you find out whether you're one of them. Compare rates from top carriers in about 2 minutes. Enter your zip code, answer a few questions, and see if a cleaner rate is waiting at another carrier.

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