Google is close to buying Spirit Airlines' old chats and emails for $10 million to train AI, after unions dropped objections over worker privacy.
Google is closer to buying a huge pile of Spirit Airlines' internal data for $10 million. Aviation unions and public-interest groups withdrew their objections Monday night, after reaching a deal with Google on how data about former Spirit employees will be handled. Google has said the data would help improve its products and AI models.
Spirit shut down in May, and its assets were put up for auction. Google won with a $10 million bid. The data includes 500 million Microsoft Teams chats (the workplace messaging app), 100 million emails and other internal documents.
The sale has been held up in bankruptcy court over privacy concerns, especially about the details of staff and customers that Spirit held. Last month, 121 members of Congress, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, raised concerns about the deal.
A court-appointed privacy ombudsman, who reviews privacy questions in a sale like this, recommended approval after data on 97 million Spirit customers was excluded. The union deal removes more. The Association of Flight Attendants said it covers:
The union also said it won a more rigorous de-identification process, meaning personal details are stripped out so data cannot be tied to a person. Google is also prohibited from trying to reidentify the data. The union called the agreement "an historic win for worker privacy protections."
Google said last month it was "not looking to buy any personal information from Spirit." It said the information will either be excluded or be de-identified by an independent third party before Google receives any data.
The material does not say when the bankruptcy court will rule on the sale. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the union deal. Sara Nelson, president of the AFA-CWA, said the union will now take the issue to all of its employers to seek contract protections, and will push lawmakers for federal and state laws to protect workers.
For everyday workers, the lesson is simple. Chats and emails written at work can end up as assets if a company fails. Whether anyone is protecting them may depend on a union, a court or a lawmaker.
If your employer fails, your work chats and emails could be sold, so it is worth asking what protections cover that data.
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