Google Pays $10 Million for Spirit Data as Union and Lawmakers Demand Privacy Safeguards

Google has agreed to pay $10 million for a portion of Spirit Airlines' internal business data. The acquisition includes spreadsheets and calendars that the tech giant says will help improve its products and artificial intelligence models. The deal is part of Spirit's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings and has drawn sharp criticism from labor leaders and legislators.

The dataset in question is vast. Lawmakers note it contains 100 million emails and 500 million workplace messages. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, represents the flight attendants affected by the sale. She expressed concern that employees could still be identified even after their names are removed from the files.

Nelson stated that the AI industry is currently unregulated. She argued that there are no existing protections for employees whose data 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 emphasized that this data only became valuable in the age of AI to train models and streamline work environments.

The union leader added that Spirit employees were not at fault for the airline's financial collapse. She warned that security experts indicate there is no real way to de-identify the information when it is connected to a specific workflow. "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," Nelson said. She noted that it is easy to determine who the sensitive information belongs to.

In a statement, Google said it is acquiring part of an enterprise dataset to enhance its products and AI models. The company clarified that it is not buying personal information. Google stated that the information will be either completely excluded or de-identified by an independent third party before the data reaches the company.

More than 100 members of Congress sent a letter to Google and Spirit warning that de-identified information can sometimes be re-identified. The lawmakers seek to exclude payroll records, timecards, and certain employee communications from the sale. They also want limits placed on how the data can be used. A Spirit spokesperson declined an on-camera interview. The company said it cannot speak to why Google is seeking the data and referred questions about its potential use to Google.

The next steps in the bankruptcy process will determine whether these privacy safeguards are implemented. The union and congressional coalition are monitoring the sale closely to ensure the proposed exclusions are honored.