Panic builds over bankrupt Spirit’s looming data sale to Google
“Bankruptcy cannot become the new land grab for AI.”
TL;DR
- Springshot, a vendor whose platform powered Spirit Airlines' technology, is objecting to the sale of Spirit's data to Google, claiming it includes Springshot's intellectual property.
- Spirit's vague data categories in the sale agreement do not sufficiently distinguish between Spirit's data and third-party data, including Springshot's.
- Objectors, including IAE, fear proprietary commercial, technical, and financial data could be transferred to Google without consent, risking irreparable harm and trade secret exposure.
- Concerns are raised that Google could use this data to develop rival products, especially given a recent partnership with Ryanair.
- Privacy advocates highlight the unusual nature of selling employee data in bankruptcy and question the lack of consent from workers.
- The Air Line Pilots Association warns that re-identification of pilots in the data could endanger airways by chilling voluntary incident reporting.
- A competing bid from Micro1 offers a higher price but does not fully address vendor concerns about IP segregation.
- Objectors are calling for a transparent forensic process to segregate proprietary data before the sale is approved.