Flight Attendants Challenge Google’s $10M Purchase of Spirit Airlines Data
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) is challenging the proposed sale of Spirit Airlines’ internal data to Google, warning that employee information could remain identifiable and confidential even after “deidentification.”
In a filing with the U.S. bankruptcy court overseeing Spirit’s liquidation, the union argued that sensitive employment records—including disciplinary correspondence, training deficiencies, leave or accommodation requests, staffing and scheduling discussions, and payroll histories—could still reveal confidential information even if employees’ names are removed.
AFA also pointed out that many consumer-facing data categories are protected under the proposed agreement, while significant employee information, including time cards, travel records and tax forms, receives less protection.
The union described the arrangement as a major privacy imbalance, arguing that the transaction is consumer-focused in its protections while the underlying dataset contains a substantial amount of employee information.
AFA is asking the bankruptcy court to exclude all flight attendant data from the transaction and says it will continue opposing the sale unless that condition is met.
Google recently won a court-supervised auction for nearly all of Spirit’s remaining internal records for $10 million, defeating AI startup Mercor. The dataset reportedly includes millions of emails and Microsoft Teams messages, software code, revenue and operational data, productivity information and employment records dating back decades.
Google has said it plans to use the information to train its AI systems.
However, the deal is not final yet. The bankruptcy court must approve the transaction before any Spirit data can be transferred to Google.
The dispute now raises a broader question: How should employee privacy be protected when decades of corporate data are sold for AI development?
