By Kelsey Vlamis
Publication Date: 2026-10-05 22:01:00
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…
