Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning.

Good morning. Today is Friday, January 17th. I'm Julie Morgan. The FTC puts car companies on notice that the customers should be in the driver's seat.

Plug power closed on a loan with the Department of Energy,

and Walmart really does have something for everyone.

The Federal Trade Commission alleged that General Motors and its subsidiary,

OnStar shared data about drivers with third parties without the driver's consent.

The U.S. automaker has now agreed to a five-year ban on disclosing data to consumer reporting agencies.

The customers were encouraged to sign up for OnStar and its smart driver feature when they purchased a GM car.

According to the FTC, the customers were told that the system would use driver

behavior data to help improve their driving. However, it sold customer driving data including

geolocation and behaviors such as hard braking, late night driving, and speeding to consumer

reporting agencies. The complaint outlines that insurance companies use reports from those same agencies

to deny or cancel coverage or even raise premiums.

As part of the settlement, there's a list of dues and don'ts that the company must adhere to,

including not disclosing data for five years and after the time is up,

limiting the data it does collect.

Plug power is up 2.9% in pre-market action after announcing it closed a $1.66 billion

loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy's loan program's office. The funds will help

finance the construction of up to six projects to produce and liquefy zero or low-carbon hydrogen

at scale. Plug said its green hydrogen plant in Graham, Texas, will be its first facility to benefit

from the financing. The company's current hydrogen generation

network with plants in Georgia, Tennessee and Louisiana has a liquid hydrogen production capacity

...