Google's $10 million plan to buy Spirit's data and use it to train AI cleared one of its last big hurdles

• After Spirit Airlines shut down, Google won the bid to pay $10 million for a vast data trove.
• The sale has been held up in bankruptcy court over privacy concerns.
• But unions reached a deal with Google and withdrew their objections, clearing the way for the sale.

Google's plan to acquire a vast trove of data from Spirit Airlines to train its AI models is one step closer after it cleared a key privacy hurdle.

The Association of Flight Attendants said Tuesday that alongside other unions it had reached a deal to protect the personal data of former Spirit staff. It called the agreement "an historic win for worker privacy protections."

After Spirit shut down in May, its assets were put up for auction. Google won the bid to pay $10 million for data including 500 million Microsoft Teams chats, 100 million emails, and other internal documents. Google has said the data would help improve its products and AI models.

But the sale has been held up in bankruptcy court over privacy concerns, particularly regarding details of staff and customers held by Spirit.

Last month, 121 members of Congress, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, raised concerns about the deal. A court-appointed privacy ombudsman recommended the deal be approved after personal information about 97 million Spirit customers was excluded.

Aviation unions and public-interest groups withdrew their objections to the sale on Monday night after reaching a deal with Google about Spirit employees' data.

They agreed on excluding data covering employees' medical and disability history, drug or alcohol testing records, payroll records, and more, the AFA said.

The union also said it had won a more rigorous de-identification process than previously planned, and Google is prohibited from attempting to reidentify the data.

"Worker data privacy in the age of AI has become a whole new worker's rights issue," said Sara Nelson, international president of the AFA-CWA.

"Without our union, there would have been no one to speak for workers in this fire sale of their private information. We fought and we won brand new protections," she added.

"Now we will take this issue to all of our employers to secure contractual protections, and demand lawmakers protect workers everywhere through federal and state law."

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month, the company said it was "not looking to buy any personal information from Spirit," Reuters reported.

"The information will either be completely excluded or will be de-identified by an independent third party before Google receives any data," it added.