Google wins $10 million bid for Spirit Airlines data, union objects

In short: Google won a $10 million bid to buy decades of Spirit Airlines data, and a flight attendants union is asking a judge to stop or limit the sale.

What happened

Google placed the winning $10 million bid to purchase about 34 years of Spirit Airlines data as part of the airline’s bankruptcy process. A Google spokesperson said the data could help improve Google products and its AI models (computer programs trained on large amounts of information). Google also said the sale would not include customer data, and that it would not receive personal information.

The deal still needs court approval. A hearing connected to the sale has been delayed to September 9.

The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents about 5,500 former Spirit flight attendants, filed a formal objection. The union argues the data set includes a large amount of sensitive employee information, and that protections focused on customers do not fully protect workers.

Court filings describe a very large employee data collection, including more than 1 million time-card records, over 175,000 employee records, nearly 150,000 employee tax forms, employment contracts and legal files, 80,000 email accounts, and large stores of Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint files. The proposed process would use a third party to “deidentify” the data, meaning remove details that directly point to specific people.

Why it matters

This case highlights a growing question, what happens to worker data when a company fails and sells its assets. Even if names are removed, the union argues it may still be possible to connect pieces of information back to real people, like putting together a puzzle from different boxes. The judge’s decision could influence how employee privacy is handled in future bankruptcy sales where AI companies want large data sets for training.

Source: Wired