Congress and flight attendants urge privacy rules for Spirit data sale to Google

Google won an auction for $10 million to purchase internal business data from the bankrupt Spirit Airlines. The data set includes spreadsheets, calendars, 100 million emails, and 500 million workplace messages. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, and more than 100 members of Congress are now demanding stronger privacy protections for the former employees whose information is in the files.

Nelson said workers are concerned they can still be identified even if their names are removed from the records. She noted that the data has become valuable in the age of artificial intelligence, where it is used to train models. "AI is a fast-growing industry that is completely unregulated. So, as we started delving into this issue, we found that there were no protections on the books for employees," Nelson said. She added that her members should not be on the front line of this technological shift.

Data security experts told the union that it is difficult to truly de-identify the information when the sale includes a connected workflow. This makes it easy for researchers to determine who specific sensitive information belongs to. Nelson emphasized that Spirit employees were not at fault for the company going out of business, yet their personal files are now part of a commercial transaction.

Google stated in a written comment that it is acquiring part of an enterprise dataset to improve its products and AI models. The company said it is not buying any personal information from Spirit. Google added that any personal information will be completely excluded or de-identified by an independent third party before the data is received.

In a letter to Google and Spirit, more than 100 members of Congress warned that de-identified information can sometimes be re-identified. The lawmakers want specific records excluded from the sale, including payroll records, timecards, and some employee communications. They also proposed limits on how the data could be used after the purchase.

Spirit representatives declined an on-camera interview. A company spokesperson said Spirit cannot speak to why Google is seeking the data set. The spokesperson referred questions about the potential use of the data directly to Google. The sale is connected to Spirit’s bankruptcy case and has raised questions about how much personal workplace data should be sold to tech companies.

The proposed deal remains under review. Lawmakers and union leaders are waiting for Google and Spirit to address their specific requests for exclusions and usage limits. No final agreement has been signed yet regarding the scope of the data transfer.