Haynes Boone Partner Tim Newman spoke with Cybersecurity Law Report as Google is set to pay $1.375 billion to resolve two lawsuits brought by Texas AG Ken Paxton centered on the tech giant’s use of individuals’ biometric, geolocation and incognito-mode search data, according to a May 9, 2025, announcement. The AG said it was the largest penalty Google has ever paid over privacy issues.
The Settlement is sure to raise awareness of the Texas law. Although two trillion-dollar companies paying CUBI’s billion-dollar fines may seem irrelevant to most companies, the Google and Meta cases show CUBI’s power. “CUBI opens up a lot of potential damages because the AG can claim $25,000 per violation. Multiply that by millions of users, and your damages model gets pretty steep pretty quickly,” Newman told Cybersecurity Law Report.
The Settlement details, including the amount Google will pay, and the attention it is getting raises emerging risk factors for companies.
“The state took the view in the lawsuits that the AG filed that users and non-users alike are protected,” observed Newman.
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