In a move that has raised eyebrows among privacy advocates and consumers, SpaceX’s Starlink has updated its privacy policy to permit the use of customer data for training artificial intelligence models. The revision, which took effect on January 15, allows Starlink to use consumer data “to train our machine learning or artificial intelligence models” unless users opt out, according to the company’s Global Privacy Policy.
As SpaceX prepares for a highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) later this year, the company is reportedly in talks to merge with Musk’s AI venture, xAI, a deal first reported by Reuters. The potential merger could position SpaceX, already the world’s most valuable private company, to surpass a $1 trillion valuation after the IPO.
Starlink’s updated privacy policy also states that customer data may be shared with “service providers” and “third-party collaborators,” though it does not specify who these parties are or what data will be used. The previous version of the policy, archived from November, contained no mention of using data for AI training.
Starlink’s vast data trove includes location information, credit card details, contact information, IP addresses, and even “communication data,” such as audio, visual information, shared files, and “inferences we may make from other personal information we collect.” However, the policy offers no clarity on which specific data points will be leveraged for AI development.
The change has sparked criticism from privacy experts. “It certainly raises my eyebrow and would make me concerned if I was a Starlink user,” said Anupam Chander, a technology law professor at Georgetown University. “Often there’s perfectly legitimate uses of your data, but it doesn’t have a clear limit to what kind of uses it will be put to.”
SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment on the privacy policy update or the potential merger with xAI.
Musk’s xAI, valued at $230 billion after a recent funding round, is behind the Grok LLM chatbot and also controls Xitter, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. A merger with Starlink would provide xAI with an unprecedented dataset for AI training, including sensitive communication data from millions of users across Starlink’s network of more than 9,000 satellites, which currently serves over 9 million customers worldwide.
Critics warn that it risks normalizing the use of personal data for purposes users may not fully understand or consent to. As Musk’s ambitions expand into the AI realm, the ethical and privacy implications of leveraging consumer data at such scale remain a contentious issue.
For now, Starlink users hoping to protect their data must navigate the opt-out process—a task that, for many, may be too complex or opaque to trust. As the debate over data privacy intensifies, Musk’s latest power play underscores the urgent need for clearer regulations and accountability for billionaires.
Source: Reuters
