Looker

01. Findings

In early 2026, researchers identified critical vulnerabilities in Google Looker, including cross-tenant remote code execution (RCE) and data exfiltration flaws. These issues, tracked as CVE-2025-12743, allowed attackers to potentially manipulate data or move laterally within a company's internal network. Google patched these vulnerabilities in late September 2025 for cloud-hosted instances, but self-hosted users must manually update to versions 25.14 or higher to mitigate risk ^[18]. Google stated there was no evidence of in-the-wild exploitation at the time of disclosure ^[18]. Looker also integrates with Google Cloud infrastructure, inheriting its security posture ^[15].

02. Events

• [breach] Critical Vulnerabilities in Google Looker

  Researchers identified critical flaws in Looker allowing cross-tenant RCE and data exfiltration. Google patched cloud instances in late September 2025, but self-hosted users must update to version 25.14+.

  Feb 4, 2026, 12:00 AM · Source

• [outage] Looker Studio Service Disruptions

  Looker Studio experienced multiple service issues in 2024 and 2025, including data request slowness and MySQL connection failures.

  Oct 24, 2024, 12:00 AM · Source

• [leadership] Frank Bien Departs Google Cloud

  Frank Bien, CEO of Looker, left Google Cloud in March 2022, two years after the acquisition.

  Mar 1, 2022, 12:00 AM · Source

• [funding] Series E Funding Round

  Looker raised $103 million in Series E funding at a $1.6 billion valuation in December 2018.

  Dec 1, 2018, 12:00 AM · Source

03. AI Risk

How this vendor uses AI/ML with customer data - model providers, training stance, subprocessors, and relevant DPA language when publicly documented.

AI exposure tier: Moderate AI Exposure

Looker integrates Google Gemini AI across its platform, including Looker Studio and the core product, to provide conversational analytics and agentic workflows [9]. The platform uses AI to assist with data visualization and analysis, but specific details on whether customer data is used to train models are not publicly disclosed in the provided sources. Looker's AI features are designed to enhance user experience while maintaining data governance, but the integration of third-party AI models introduces potential data privacy considerations.

Model providers

Google Gemini

Training on customer data

Training stance unknown

04. Company

Looker Data Sciences, Inc. is an American technology company founded in 2012 in Santa Cruz, California, by Lloyd Tabb and Ben Porterfield ^[1]. It was acquired by Google in 2019 for $2.6 billion and operates as a subsidiary of Google Cloud ^[1]. The company raised $280.5 million in total funding prior to acquisition, including a Series E round in 2018 that valued the company at $1.6 billion ^[3]. Looker had approximately 600 employees in 2018 ^[6]. Frank Bien served as CEO until his departure from Google Cloud in March 2022 ^[8]. The company is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California ^[1].

05. Product

Looker is an enterprise business intelligence and semantic modeling platform that connects to data warehouses to provide governed metrics, role-based security, and centralized data modeling ^[10]. It uses a proprietary language called LookML to construct SQL queries ^[11]. The product suite includes the original Looker platform, Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio), and Looker Reports ^[9]. Looker is designed for organizations requiring strict data governance and embedded analytics capabilities ^[11]. It competes with platforms like Tableau, Power BI, and Sigma ^[10].

06. Recent News

Recent news highlights critical security vulnerabilities in Looker discovered in early 2026, which allowed cross-tenant SQL queries and remote code execution ^[20]. Google patched these issues in late 2025, but self-hosted instances remain at risk if not updated ^[18]. Additionally, Looker Studio experienced service disruptions in 2024 and 2025, including data request slowness and MySQL connection failures ^[16]. Looker continues to release updates, with version 25.2 reaching general availability in March 2025 ^[15]. Frank Bien, the former CEO, departed Google Cloud in March 2022 ^[8].

07. Dependencies

Fourth parties this vendor relies on - subprocessors, infrastructure, and integrations surfaced from public sources.

• Google Cloud Platform

  cloud.google.com

  InfrastructureSource →

• BigQuery

  cloud.google.com/bigquery

  IntegrationSource →

08. Competitors

Vendors offering a similar product or service - for side-by-side comparison, not a ranking.

• Tableau

  tableau.com

  Enterprise BI platform

  Vet this vendor →

• Microsoft Power BI

  powerbi.microsoft.com

  Enterprise BI platform

  Vet this vendor →

• Sigma

  sigma.com

  Warehouse-native analytics platform

  Vet this vendor →

10. Vendor response

Content in this section is vendor-supplied and does not alter Vendorisk.ai's risk tier or evaluation.

11. Assessment history

1. 8/19/2026, 3:25:52 PM · Elevated · 75

Risk delta is hidden until two stored snapshots can be compared.

12. Targeted questions

13. Sources

1. [1] Looker Data Sciences, Inc. is an American technology company founded in 2012 in Santa Cruz, California, by Lloyd Tabb and Ben Porterfield. Looker (company)
2. [2] Looker was acquired by Google in 2019 for $2.6 billion and operates as a subsidiary of Google Cloud. Looker (company)
3. [3] The company raised $280.5 million in total funding prior to acquisition, including a Series E round in 2018 that valued the company at $1.6 billion. Looker Raises $103 Million at $1.6 Billion Valuation
4. [4] Looker had approximately 600 employees in 2018. Rising Big Data Star Looker Raises $103 Million In Series E Funding
5. [5] Frank Bien served as CEO until his departure from Google Cloud in March 2022. Looker CEO Departs Google Cloud Two Years After Acquisition
6. [6] Looker is an enterprise business intelligence and semantic modeling platform that connects to data warehouses to provide governed metrics, role-based security, and centralized data modeling. 10 Looker Alternatives & Competitors in 2026
7. [7] It uses a proprietary language called LookML to construct SQL queries.