Google agrees to sell Spirit Airlines data without personal info

Deal excludes individual employee records

An agreement reached this week requires Spirit Airlines to hire Tonic AI for data de-identification before selling files to Google. The third-party company will exclude information associated with specific employees or consumers from the transaction. Google promised to maintain all sold data in this new de-identified form permanently. Many sensitive records including medical files and labor relations documents will be excluded from the sale entirely.

Union argues for worker privacy rights

The Association for Flight Attendants argued that Google safeguards would not prevent serious privacy violations for flight attendants. Their records include 1.99 billion emails and 664 million Microsoft Teams messages dating back to 1986. Representatives said the budget airline intended to sell decades of data for $10 million in August. The union claims individual consumer protection laws rarely consider rights of workers who create that information daily.

Opt out clause protects asset value

The proposed agreement includes an opt-out clause allowing Google to renege if data cleaning reduces assets by more than 8 percent. A trade organization representing airlines argued including safety management info could discourage employees from reporting issues voluntarily. President Sara Nelson stated the union will demand similar worker-data-protection clauses in other airline labor agreements immediately. This historic agreement forms a segment of the shutdown proceedings for Spirit Airlines that stopped flying at the start of this year.