This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on cars, data privacy, and autonomous vehicles, follow Andrew J. Hawkins . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here .

How it started

Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission issued an unprecedented penalty against General Motors: a five-year ban on selling customer data to consumer reporting agencies and third-party data brokers.

For years, GM had been collecting all sorts of data on its customers — such as how often they sped or whether they drove at night — and selling it to brokers to generate risk profiles for insurance companies. More often than not, drivers were unaware of the degree to which their data was being collected.…