Flight attendants freaked out that Google is buying tons of Spirit employee data

Google won an auction to purchase a large dataset from a bankrupt airline containing decades of employee records, including emails, HR information, and productivity data. Flight attendants' union representatives objected because while Google agreed to remove personally identifying information from customer data as part of the sale, worker data receives less legal protection and could potentially be re-identified or expose sensitive information about specific employees or small groups of employees. The union argues that removing names from records does not address whether the remaining content itself is confidential, and that powerful computer systems could combine the scrubbed data with other publicly available information to re-associate it with individuals. Google stated it acquired the data to improve its products and AI models and will not receive any personal information, though the union expressed concern that the company's commitment only covers intentional re-identification efforts.