Google's Spirit Airlines AI Training Data Purchase Clears Privacy Hurdle

Google's proposed acquisition of data from collapsed Spirit Airlines to train artificial-intelligence models has moved closer to approval after aviation unions and public-interest groups withdrew their objections in bankruptcy court. The Association of Flight Attendants said on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with Google to protect the personal information of former Spirit employees, describing the settlement as a major win for worker privacy. Spirit ceased operations in May, after which its assets were auctioned. Google secured a $10 million winning bid for a large internal data set, including about 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, 100 million emails and other corporate documents. The company has said the material would help improve its products and AI models. However, the transaction has faced resistance in bankruptcy proceedings over privacy concerns, especially regarding employee and customer information embedded in the files. More than 120 members of Congress, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, raised concerns last month, and a court-appointed privacy ombudsman recommended approval only after personal data tied to roughly 97 million Spirit customers was excluded. Under the newly reached deal, unions and public-interest groups dropped their objections on Monday night. The agreement requires Google to exclude categories of sensitive employee data, including medical and disability histories, drug and alcohol testing records, payroll information and other protected details. The Association of Flight Attendants also said the revised arrangement provides a stricter de-identification process than originally proposed and bars Google from trying to reidentify the data. The AFA said the dispute highlighted the emergence of worker data privacy as a labor-rights issue in the AI era, and said it would seek similar contractual protections from employers and push for legislative safeguards. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a prior statement, Google said it was not seeking to buy any personal information from Spirit and that sensitive data would either be excluded entirely or de-identified by an independent third party before transfer.