Over 120 US lawmakers have raised concerns over Google's planned USD10 million acquisition of Spirit Airlines's internal data to train artificial intelligence (AI) models, urging the technology company to protect employee privacy. In a letter led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Steven Horsford, the lawmakers called on Google to exclude employee information from the transaction to the greatest extent possible. The proposed sale, part of Spirit's bankruptcy liquidation process, includes approximately 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, spreadsheets, calendars, and other operational and employee records.

Google, which won an auction for the data in August 2026, said personal information would either be excluded or de-identified by an independent third party before being transferred. A court-appointed privacy ombudsman has recommended approving the transaction after excluding personal information belonging to approximately 97 million Spirit customers. A US bankruptcy court is scheduled to consider the sale on October 14.