General Motors and subsidiary OnStar will be banned for five years from sharing drivers' precise geolocation and driving behavior data with consumer reporting agencies, under a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission, the FTC said in a release Thursday.

An investigation by the Federal Trade Commission determined that consumers had not been aware that the automaker was providing their driving information to data brokers.

The U.S. carmaker had been harvesting drivers' data that was of particular value for insurers keen on better assessing the risk posed by policyholders.