Congress and union demand privacy safeguards for Spirit Airlines data sold to Google

More than 100 members of Congress and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA are demanding new privacy rules for former Spirit Airlines employees. They are reacting to a bid by Google to purchase internal business data from the bankrupt carrier for $10 million. The union and lawmakers want to ensure that sensitive workplace information is protected before the data changes hands.

The dispute centers on a proposed sale tied to Spirit’s bankruptcy proceedings. According to lawmakers, the records up for auction include 100 million emails and 500 million workplace messages. The dataset also contains spreadsheets and calendars. Google stated that acquiring this enterprise data will help improve its products and AI models.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, expressed concern that workers could still be identified even if their names are removed from the files. She noted that the aviation industry lacks specific protections for employee data in the current regulatory environment. Nelson said, “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 argued that the data has gained value specifically because it can be used to train AI models. She stated, “And this is really only data that became valuable in the age of AI in order to train models to replace jobs and commodify other portions of working in a work environment. And our members should not be on the tip of the spear of that.”

The union leader emphasized that employees did not cause the airline’s financial collapse. She warned that data security experts say it is difficult to truly de-identify information when a connected workflow is included in the sale. Nelson said, “And yet here they are with their entire lives splayed out in their personal files and data security experts telling us that there is no real way to de-identify that information when the sale is supposed to have a workflow connected to it.”

Google responded in a statement, clarifying that it is not buying personal information. The company said the data will either be completely excluded or de-identified by an independent third party before Google receives it. The airline’s representatives declined an on-camera interview but confirmed that the data sale is part of the bankruptcy process.

In a letter sent to both Google and Spirit, the congressional group warned that de-identified data can sometimes be re-identified. The lawmakers are asking for specific exclusions, including payroll records, timecards, and some employee communications. They also seek limits on how the acquired data can be used in the future.