Spirit Airlines Flight Attorneys Secure Proposed Data Privacy Protections in Google Sale

An agreement between Google and the Association for Flight Attendants could set a new standard for worker data privacy in corporate AI data sales. The deal, which still requires court approval, emerged from the liquidation of Spirit Airlines after the carrier halted operations earlier this year.

Spirit said it would sell decades of records to Google for $10 million, including 1.99 billion emails and 664 million Microsoft Teams messages dating to 1986. The union representing 55,000 flight attendants argued that Google's proposed safeguards were insufficient to prevent privacy violations for employees whose data would be included.

The revised agreement requires Spirit to hire Tonic AI, a third-party firm, to remove information that could identify individual consumers or employees. Google must maintain the data in this de-identified form and cannot relink it to specific people. Sensitive records such as medical files, labor relations documents, and safety management system data will be excluded entirely.

An opt-out clause allows Google to withdraw from the sale if the data-cleaning process reduces the assets by more than 8 percent. Union president Sara Nelson said the union will immediately begin to demand that other airlines include similar worker-data-protection clauses in labor agreements and has begun working with state legislators on new laws.