Google agrees to addition privacy protections in Spirit Airlines data sale

On November 10, Alphabet's Google has reached an agreement for enhanced privacy protections in the acquisition of Spirit Airlines' employee data, according to a union representing the affected workers. This approval allows Google to proceed with its $10 million deal to acquire the data from the defunct airline, which was initially planned for the purpose of training AI models.

The union has secured a more thorough de-identification process for the data and explicitly excluded sensitive employee information such as health and medical records from the sale.

Google won the auction in August for various data sets from Spirit, including emails, spreadsheets, and calendars, as well as marketing, productivity, and operational data. As Spirit prepares for closure and asset liquidation, the union has secured these additional safeguards to protect employee privacy during this transition.