Flight attendants union, Congress members seek privacy protections in Spirit data sale to Google

(InvestigateTV) — A flight attendants union and more than 100 members of Congress are pushing for greater privacy protections for former Spirit Airlines employees after Google won an auction to buy some of the airline’s internal business data for $10 million.

The data includes spreadsheets and calendars. Google said the data could help improve its products and AI models.

Lawmakers say Spirit records at issue in the proposed sale include 100 million emails and 500 million workplace messages.

The proposal is connected to Spirit’s bankruptcy case. It has raised concerns about employee privacy.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, leads the union that represents Spirit flight attendants. She said she is concerned workers could still be identified even if their names are removed.

“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. “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.”

Nelson said Spirit employees were not at fault for the company going out of business.

“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. So, it’s very easy to go back and determine who these people are, who this sensitive information belongs to. And that’s what we’re trying to protect against,” Nelson said.

Google provided a statement when asked for comment:

“We’re acquiring part of an enterprise dataset from Spirit Airlines which can help improve our products and AI models. Google is not buying any personal information from Spirit. The information will either be completely excluded or will be deidentified by an independent third party before Google receives the data.”

In a letter to Google and Spirit, more than 100 members of Congress warn that de-identified information can sometimes be re-identified.

The lawmakers want payroll records, timecards and some employee communications excluded from the sale. They also want limits on how the data could be used.

Spirit representatives declined an on-camera interview.

A spokesperson said the company cannot speak to why Google is seeking the data set and referred questions about the data’s potential use to Google.