Home / Business and Economy / Lawmakers Grill Google Over Spirit Data Buy
Lawmakers Grill Google Over Spirit Data Buy
9 Oct
Summary
- Over 120 US lawmakers expressed concerns about Google's data acquisition.
- Google plans to buy Spirit Airlines' internal data for $10 million.
- The sale includes 100 million emails and 500 million Teams messages.
Over 120 United States lawmakers have officially raised significant concerns about a proposed $10 million acquisition by Alphabet's Google unit. The deal involves purchasing internal data from the now-defunct Spirit Airlines, intended for training artificial intelligence systems. This trove of data reportedly includes approximately 100 million emails and 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, along with other employee records.
Led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Steven Horsford, the concerned lawmakers have formally requested that Google "exclude employee information from the transaction to the greatest extent possible." The precise timeframe for this transaction is not specified, but the lawmakers' concerns were raised on Thursday, October 8th, relative to the current date of 2026-10-09T00:44:05+00:00, indicating this is a recent development.
The lawmakers' appeal highlights a growing apprehension surrounding the use of vast amounts of personal employee data for AI development. The request to segregate sensitive information underscores the ethical and privacy considerations involved in such large-scale data acquisitions.
