Flight attendants urge Congress to block Spirit data sale to Google

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA is asking Congress to step in and protect the privacy of former Spirit Airlines employees. The union wants to stop Google from accessing internal company records. Google won an auction for the data in Spirit's bankruptcy proceedings. The tech company paid $10 million for the purchase.

Lawmakers say the deal involves a massive amount of communication. The records include 100 million emails and 500 million workplace messages. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, leads the push for protections. She represents Spirit flight attendants in the bankruptcy case.

Nelson says workers can still be identified even if their names are removed from the files. She notes that data security experts find it hard to fully de-identify information connected to a workflow. "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," Nelson said. "And our members should not be on the tip of the spear of that."

More than 100 members of Congress sent a letter to Google and Spirit Airlines. The letter warns that de-identified information can sometimes be re-identified. The lawmakers want specific records excluded from the sale. They are asking to remove payroll records, timecards, and some employee communications. They also want limits on how Google can use the data.

Google stated that it is acquiring part of an enterprise dataset. The company said the data will help improve its products and AI models. Google is not buying any personal information from Spirit. The information will be excluded or deidentified by an independent third party before Google receives it.

Spirit representatives declined an on-camera interview for the story. A spokesperson for the airline said the company cannot speak to why Google is seeking the dataset. The airline referred questions about the data's potential use directly to Google.

The proposal is connected to Spirit's bankruptcy case. Nelson said Spirit employees were not at fault for the company going out of business. She argued that workers should not lose privacy because of corporate financial decisions. The union continues to press for these protections in the ongoing legal process.