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US lawmakers led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Steven Horsford expressed concern on October 8 about Google's acquisition of internal data from defunct airline Spirit Airlines for $10 million, intended for AI model training. The sale includes 100 million emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams messages among other employee records but excludes passenger personal information. Lawmakers urged Google to exclude as much employee information as possible due to privacy concerns, while the company stated it only seeks data that will be de-identified or excluded entirely from the transaction.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-09,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
On October 8, more than 120 US lawmakers, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Steven Horsford, expressed concern over Google's acquisition of Spirit Airlines' internal data for $10 million. Spirit Airlines halted operations in May and is liquidating assets; the data includes spreadsheets, calendars, marketing records, and productivity information from 97 million customer files, excluding personal passenger details. The sale also involves approximately 100 million emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams messages along with other employee records. Lawmakers urged Google to exclude employee information as much as possible, citing concerns over workers' privacy and the confidentiality of required-provided information.
Written for “Google Spirit Airlines Acquisition Co…” on 2026-10-09,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.45, but 1 quote(s) could not be found in the article and the other 1 are attributed speech rather than the article's own narration, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph
rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 67201: no verified evidence · logged 2026-10-09
US lawmakers raise alarm at Google plan to acquire Spirit Airlines data for AI models
AI generated
asserted
lawmakers → raise → models
More than 120 US lawmakers raised concerns on Oct 8 about a deal for Alphabet’s Google unit to acquire defunct carrier Spirit Airlines’ internal data for US$10 million (S$12.8 million) to train artificial intelligence systems.
asserted
unit → raise → systems
As part of Spirit’s closure and asset liquidation, Google won an auction in August for data from spreadsheets and calendars as well as for marketing, productivity and operations.
asserted
Google → win → marketing
Spirit Airlines halted operations in May.
uncertain
Airlines → halt → May
A privacy ombudsman on Oct 5 recommended a US bankruptcy judge approve the deal at an Oct 14 hearing after excluding passenger personal information from 97 million Spirit customers.
asserted
judge → recommend → customers
The lawmakers led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Steven Horsford said the sale would include 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams messages and other employee records.
asserted
sale → lead → emails
The lawmakers asked the company to “exclude employee information from the transaction to the greatest extent possible”.
asserted
lawmakers → ask → extent
“Innovation should not come at the expense of workers’ privacy or the confidentiality of information they were required to provide as a condition of employment,” said the lawmakers.
asserted
lawmakers → come → employment
“The unprecedented scale and sophistication of modern artificial intelligence make it particularly important that privacy protections keep pace with the technology.”
asserted
protections → make → technology
Google said it did not want to acquire personal information.
asserted
it → say → information
“We are not looking to buy any personal information from Spirit.
asserted
We → look → Spirit
The information will either be completely excluded or will be de-identified by an independent third party before Google receives any data.
asserted
Google → exclude → data
We’re already working constructively with the appointed privacy ombudsman,” a Google spokesperson said.
asserted
spokesperson → work → ombudsman
Union leaders have expressed concern about the sale.
asserted
leaders → express → sale
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said: “The outcome of conditions on this proposed sale to Google carries tremendous implications for workers across the economy.”
asserted
outcome → say → economy
Spirit also received a US$7.5 million bid from Mercor, an AI data company, for the employee data.
asserted
Spirit → receive → data
The Federal Aviation Administration this week approved the US$58.5 million sale of Spirit’s slots at New York LaGuardia airport to JetBlue Airways.
asserted
Administration → approve → Airways
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