Spirit Airlines Flight Attendants Fight To Keep Their Private Records Out Of Google’s $10 Million AI Deal

Google won a bankruptcy auction for Spirit Airlines' internal data with a $10 million bid, acquiring 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams items, and decades of operating records to train its AI, but the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA has objected, arguing that deidentification fails to protect thousands of former employees' private records. The archive includes 175,658 employee records, 3.4 million payroll records, and 148,018 tax forms, while excluding passenger data. The union's objection seeks removal of flight attendant information or additional safeguards, though it is unlikely to succeed.

Google won a bankruptcy auction for Spirit Airlines’ internal data, bidding $10 million for 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams items and decades of operating records. The failed airline’s institutional memory will be used to train artificial intelligence. I wrote about the sale https://viewfromthewing.com/google-buys-spirit-airlines-emails-files-and-flight-records-for-10-million-so-gemini-can-learn-from-bankruptcy/ when Google beat artificial intelligence data company Mercor’s $7.5 million bid. Google is buying connections between communications, decisions, software changes and what happened to the business afterward. The customer list wasn’t included. Even in liquidation, Spirit still charges extra for the passenger. But the employees weren’t unbundled. Enilria flags https://www.patreon.com/posts/google-buys-data-166949843 that the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA has now objected to the sale, arguing that “deidentifying” the archive doesn’t adequately protect thousands of former Spirit employees whose private employment records are buried inside it. Spirit Excluded Passengers And Included Employees Google’s purchase excludes Spirit’s 97.5 million passenger profiles, 50.2 million Free Spirit records, call recordings, customer chats, phone numbers, credit card information and most other directly identifiable passenger information. The employee side of the archive includes: - 175,658 employee records reaching back to August 1986 - More than 1 million time-card records - 3.4 million payroll records and 148,018 employee tax forms - Corporate and crew training records - Employee travel, recruiting, disciplinary and litigation records - 100 million emails across 80,000 accounts - 17.1 million OneDrive items, 20.6 million SharePoint items and 500 million Teams items AFA puts the problem well: “The privacy architecture of this transaction is consumer-facing; its payload is disproportionately employee-facing.” Spirit and Google say a third party will remove or transform personal information before Google receives anything. The data must meet the California Consumer Privacy Act’s deidentification standard even where that law would not otherwise apply, along with the federal health data standard for health-related information. Google commits to keep the archive deidentified and not intentionally connect it to any person or household. But the agreement also requires the deidentification process to preserve “referential integrity across the data set.” The links between records survive, which is exactly why Google wants the data. The same pseudonymous employee can be followed through scheduling, training, payroll, email, operational decisions and results. An artificial intelligence agent learns more from that connected sequence than from 100 million unrelated emails dumped into a bucket. That’s also the privacy concern. A name can be removed while the combination of a small crew base, a particular trip, dates, training history and an internal conversation makes the employee obvious. A disciplinary investigation, accommodation request or discussion of a miscarriage or domestic violence remains intimate even after “Jane Smith” becomes “Employee 38174.” Google can designate or approve the company performing the deidentification, review its work and transfer the finished data to other parties that accept the same restrictions. Former employees have no third-party rights allowing them to enforce those promises themselves. A Real Privacy Problem, But Little Legal Force AFA’s court filing is a very limited objection https://afacwa.org/spirit-objection-sale-your-data/ , saying they aren’t trying to unwind the auction or prevent Spirit from monetizing its data. It wants all flight attendant information removed or, failing that, additional safeguards covering employee records and free-form communications. That’s not likely to succeed. Companies generally own their business systems and work email. Employees don’t have a general federal right to approve the sale of their employer’s deidentified records. AFA also concedes that the Bankruptcy Code provision governing the sale of personally identifiable customer information isn’t relevant. That provision was written around people giving information to a company to obtain a product or service, not employee records. Several of the authorities AFA cites don’t carry much weight, either: - Bankruptcy Code section 107 allows courts to protect confidential commercial information filed in court. It doesn’t create a broad employee right to stop an employer from selling corporate records. - Section 363 e lets the court protect someone with an interest in property being sold. AFA hasn’t established that flight attendants own an interest in Spirit’s email and personnel systems. - AFA cites the TWA bankruptcy for the treatment of employee-related rights in a sale. That case actually allowed employment claims to be swept away through a sale free and clear of successor liability. Spirit also has a strong business justification. Three bidders competed for approximately two and a half hours, and the price rose from $5 million to $10 million. Bankruptcy courts are supposed to maximize value for creditors. This was a competitive auction, not insiders quietly handing the archive to Google. And the existing protections are meaningful. The agreement excludes personal data under applicable privacy laws, requires an outside deidentification process, borrows California’s relatively demanding standard, applies a health information standard and contractually prohibits intentional reidentification. AFA admits it isn’t offering technical evidence that any particular record can be reconstructed. The union’s best arguments arise from narrower laws protecting specific information. Medical examinations and accommodation records are subject to confidentiality rules under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Family and Medical Leave Act documentation must also be kept confidential. California’s privacy law has covered employee information since 2023. Union communications may contain privileged or collective bargaining material that Spirit doesn’t simply own free of competing rights. That doesn’t require deleting every scheduling record or email mentioning a flight attendant though. The Sale Probably Closes With More Guardrails There’s better than a 90% chance the data sale closes. The chance every flight attendant record is removed is maybe 10%. But AFA-CWA might get some additional protections like: - Removal of medical, accommodation, tax, disciplinary and privileged labor records - An employee-specific review of emails, Teams messages, OneDrive and SharePoint content - Independent certification of the deidentification process - Tighter controls and notice surrounding transfers to additional companies Google doesn’t actually need to know which flight attendant requested medical leave. Complaints about a supervisor would actually be useful to the AI to better understand organization dynamics. Topics on this page Spirit Airlines https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/spirit-airlines/ Association of Flight Attendants https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/association-of-flight-attendants/ California Consumer Privacy Act https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/california-consumer-privacy-act/ Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/chapter-11-title-11-united-states-code/ Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/americans-with-disabilities-act-of-1990/ Artificial intelligence https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/artificial-intelligence/ Bankruptcy https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/bankruptcy/ California https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/california/ Employment discrimination https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/employment-discrimination/ Information privacy https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/information-privacy/ Microsoft https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/microsoft/ Spirit Airlines https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/spirit-airlines-2/ Trade union https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/trade-union/ Trans World Airlines https://viewfromthewing.com/topic/trans-world-airlines/