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A labor union representing thousands of former Spirit flight attendants asked the court to decline the transaction (Reuters)<\/p>\nA bankruptcy court delayed approval of Google\u2019s $10 million purchase of Spirit Airlines\u2019 data after former flight attendants objected, warning that the deal could violate worker privacy to feed artificial intelligence models.<\/p>\n
A labor union representing thousands of former Spirit flight attendants asked the court to decline the transaction (Reuters)<\/p>\n
A labor union representing thousands of former Spirit flight attendants asked the court to decline the transaction unless the agreement expressly provides that all confidential flight attendant information is excluded from the sale or at least receives the same protection as consumer information, according to an objection filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Google last week won the auction of Spirit\u2019s digital archives that include decades of payroll, travel and recruiting files, along with about 100 million emails, 80,000 email accounts and millions of additional digital items. Google said it plans to use the data to improve its products and AI models, and that personal customer information wouldn\u2019t be included in the purchase.<\/p>\n
The flight attendants\u2019 association said in its objection that while customer data might be protected, the deal lacks adequate safeguards to protect information about the attendants who worked for the defunct airline.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not receive any personal information from this data set,\u201d said a Google spokesperson. \u201cAny data we receive will be rigorously scrubbed of any personally identifiable information by a third party before receipt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spirit said it is \u201cengaging a third party to deidentify the data and certify that the data sold at auction is compliant with applicable privacy laws and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Sean Lane, who is overseeing the bankruptcy case, postponed the sale hearing to Sept. 9 to give the court time to evaluate the claims.<\/p>\n
The sale agreement between Google and Spirit mandates that the data be \u201cdeidentified\u201d to remove elements that would link the information to a consumer or otherwise be considered personal data.<\/p>\n
The union countered that \u201cdeidentification addresses whether a record can be traced to a named individual. It does not address whether the contents of the record are confidential.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union said there is an asymmetry in how the transaction treats customer information versus employee information. While customer profiles, email addresses, loyalty data and chat sessions were largely \u201cnot included,\u201d nearly every category tied to former employees, including time card information, payroll records, tax forms and business travel records, is part of the sale, it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe privacy architecture of this transaction is consumer-facing; its payload is disproportionately employee-facing,\u201d the flight-attendant association said in the objection.<\/p>\n