Live data from Hacker News

Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

theregister.com

271–280 of 457 posts

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll never understand this attitude toward airlines. What did you want them to do in this situation? Keep flying the plane with engine issues so you could make your important meetings? It sounds like the airline did the right thing here but you were still mad?

I suppose consider yourself lucky that you haven't yet been inconvenienced by an issue completely within the airline's control and been offered $50 in funny money even though you had to pay out of pocket for your dingy hotel and transport in/out of the airport at 11pm/6am the next morning. And no, they won't reimburse that, because you could have slept on the terminal floor for free I on the other hand will never und…

These situations are regulated in Europe.

But then corporates go brainwashing on tv that too much regulations are killing business.

You can have rights or ease of business, nailing both, sounds difficult.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#273
post #29

I see from the court PDF that the process here involves Spirit giving the data to a "Deidentification Agent" (a third party firm that Google selects and pays for) who is responsible for stripping out things that would link data to any particular person before passing the data on to Google. Is that a standard thing, such that everybody in this transaction would have said "yes, put in the usual clauses about deidentify…

Chances the third party is uploading it to Claude to do the deidentification?

Considering that the buyer is Google, it's more likely to be a Gemini customer with a Google Cloud plan.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#274
post #19

About twenty years ago, I was taking a flight back from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the US. In the middle of the night the pilot got on the loudspeaker and said "hi! Having some engine trouble, so we are landing in Manaus." Manaus is in the middle of the Amazon. Needless to say, a bit scary to hear that, but we landed without issue. They told us we had two choices: the nice hotel with a shared room, or the lesser nice…

I'll never understand this attitude toward airlines. What did you want them to do in this situation? Keep flying the plane with engine issues so you could make your important meetings? It sounds like the airline did the right thing here but you were still mad?

Agree, isn't this precisely what credit-card companies promise to cover? I'd think I would just claim flight-interruption with the credit card insurance and it should cover all expenses.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#275
post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I don't get what the airline did wrong there.

They failed to uphold their end of the contract and caused OP to experience damages.

Poor op. /s

This is the kind of attitude that puts pressure on airlines and thus pilots to fly even when situation is dubious.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since it’s work communications, consent was already given. When you join a company, you typically sign an agreement that talks about how the company owns all your output. Thumbs upping a Teams message is work output and they own it. Every email sent and received. Every keystroke. Etc etc etc. If you don’t want your employer to log and sell it, start your own company. Or use a personal device. I do the latter.

I don't know the US law, but surely in Europe specifically every private conversation is private, period. No matter if it's work email, your company cannot read the emails directed at your company mailbox by its initiative (of course in case it's needed a judge can ask it to be taken as evidence), nor it can read the files on your computer, or anything similar, no matter if the device it's company provided, because i…

It heavily depends on country if employer can access the email or not. For example in Italy:

> Italian Supreme Court case law according to which defensive controls may be carried out where there is a well-founded suspicion of unlawful conduct, provided that an appropriate balance is struck between the employer’s interests and the employee’s dignity and privacy, and that the control concerns data acquired after the suspicion arose.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll never understand this attitude toward airlines. What did you want them to do in this situation? Keep flying the plane with engine issues so you could make your important meetings? It sounds like the airline did the right thing here but you were still mad?

Perhaps they want the airlines to do a better job maintaining their fleet such that the airline is capable of meeting its obligations with respect to arriving on time without crashing.

This is an unfair take. Airlines already take maintenance very seriously. Knock them for their customer service all you want, but engineering doesn't deserve it.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#278
post #19

About twenty years ago, I was taking a flight back from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the US. In the middle of the night the pilot got on the loudspeaker and said "hi! Having some engine trouble, so we are landing in Manaus." Manaus is in the middle of the Amazon. Needless to say, a bit scary to hear that, but we landed without issue. They told us we had two choices: the nice hotel with a shared room, or the lesser nice…

It seems like you had a nice, unexpected experience due to the incident. I didn't expect your story to end up in you threatening to take them to court.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#279
post #140
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there anything that can legally be done against this? It feels like a breach of consent. Like, it cannot be that when one accept their voice to be recorded for _human_ training they also accept it to be recorded for LLM training

Your comment reminded me of a funny interaction I had a week or so ago. I got a call that started with the usual automated message, "This call is being recorded." After the person joined, I pushed the record button on my iPhone, "This call is being recorded." They were surprised and asked why I'm recording. I said, "You're recording, so I'm recording too." The rep insisted that the company doesn't like this but that…

"I have nothing to hide" -> "Ok take off your cloth". Privacy is a useful social construct not some abstract mathematical concept. Everyone has stuff to hide and that's ok.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did they consent? Just because one receives a letter it doesn't mean they “own” it, much less that they are entitled to publish it at their leisure. If Spirit were active in any country with GDPR-style laws, the seller of these data would be most likely investigated.

America believes in freedom for large companies to take personal data and make it their own, rather than individual feeedom

this is the conceit of politicians/elites when they talk about "freedom" vs when we talk about it; its a nice dog-whistle that only they can hear the true meaning of
Post reply on HN