Google just got a win in its effort to buy Spirit Airlines’ old data.
A court-appointed consumer privacy official recommended the sale be approved in a filing on Monday, citing steps taken by Spirit and Google to address risks to passenger privacy.
“The parties have taken consequential steps to protect the privacy of the personal data of the Spirit consumers,” Lucy Thomson, the consumer privacy ombudsman, said.
The filing said the companies revised the scope of personal consumer data included in the sale, excluded passenger databases, and hired a third party, Tonic.ai, to conduct de-identification of data that could contain consumers’ personal information, such as company emails.
“These changes will significantly reduce the potential risk of harm to the 97 million consumers who provided their personal data to Spirit for the purpose of booking airline travel,” the filing said, adding that any risk of privacy losses to consumers had been “eliminated or mitigated.”
After Spirit Airlines shut down in May, Google won an auction for its data with a $10 million bid. The sale still requires court approval. Google has said the data would help improve its products and AI models.
Unions representing Spirit flight attendants and pilots have filed objections to the sale, saying it would undermine their privacy. The union that represents American Airlines pilots, including some 700 who formerly worked for Spirit, joined the objection in a filing last week, arguing the sale could hinder aviation safety.
A representative for Spirit did not provide additional comment when reached by Business Insider. Google did not respond to a request for comment. The company previously said that personally identifying information would not be included in the sale.
“Google is not buying any personal information from Spirit. The information will either be completely excluded or will be deidentified by an independent third party before Google receives the data,” the company has said.
The ombudsman was appointed to evaluate risks specific to consumer privacy, as US bankruptcy law provides for consumer protections in data sales. The ombudsman said her review did not include whether the sale posed any privacy risks to employees.
Lawyers previously told Business Insider that the proposed sale served as a reminder that, as an employee, your work data is generally not private and belongs to the company.
While the ombudsman’s recommendation helps the companies’ case, approval of the data sale is ultimately up to the court. A hearing on the proposed sale is scheduled for October 14.
The filing on Monday also said that if other bids for the data are considered by the court — including those placed by AI training companies Mercor and Micro1 — additional review of consumer privacy concerns would be needed. The ombudsman specifically said she’d need more information about a “supply chain security incident” that happened at Mercor earlier this year.
