An expert said the auto industry should pay attention to Texas' data privacy laws: "What Texas has done is funded it, staffed it and supported it."

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued automaker General Motors in August, claiming that GM illegally collected data about drivers, which it then sold to insurance providers. Now, the AG’s office has filed another similar lawsuit, this time against an insurance company itself.

Allstate ALL.N has been sued by the state of Texas, which accused the insurer on Monday of illegally tracking drivers through their cell phones without their consent and using the data to justify charging more for car insurance.

Paxton accuses Allstate of collecting driver location and movement data without consent to raise insurance rates in the state.

Don't mess with Texas, especially if you're an insurance company violating privacy laws to raise rates. That's how the state's attorney general feels, anyway, after accusing Allstate of acquiring (and reselling) the smartphone data of millions of drivers.

The lawsuit accuses Arity, an Allstate subsidiary, of collecting data about people’s driving behavior through mobile phone apps, leading to increases in drivers’ insurance rates.

Allstate and its subsidiary, Arity, are being sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for allegedly collecting, using and selling data from Texans' cell phones unlawfully.

The insurance firm is said to have used GasBuddy, Life360, and other smartphone apps to spy on drivers' whereabouts and cross-check their mileage.

Texas AG Ken Paxton is suing Allstate for allegedly collecting data from 45 million Americans to raise insurance premiums.

How Did Allstate Do It? The lawsuit claims that Allstate paid app developers millions of dollars to surreptitiously integrate its tracking software into popular apps. These mobile