Spirit Airlines to Sell Employee Data to Train Google AI, Horsford and Warren Lead Call for Worker Privacy Protections

NORTH LAS VEGAS – Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-04) and Senator Elizabeth Warren led 119 Members of Congress in a letter to Spirit Airlines CEO, Dave Davis, and Google CEO, Sundar Piachi, urging the companies to protect the privacy of thousands of former Spirit employees. The letter responds to the proposed $10 million sale of Spirit’s internal data to Google for the purpose of training artificial intelligence systems. 

Court findings revealed that the proposed sale would include approximately 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, employee records, timecards records, payroll and tax information, and employment contracts. Workers created and provided this information as a condition of their employment, and it may contain highly sensitive details, including medical information and accommodation requests. 

“Spirit’s workers handed over this information because their jobs required it, not so it could be sold to train a different company’s AI,” said Rep. Horsford. “In Las Vegas alone, nearly 1,000 people were laid off from Spirit. They should not have to worry about their payroll records, disciplinary files, and private messages being used by a company they never worked for. Innovation cannot come at the expense of workers’ privacy, and no employee data should move until real, enforceable safeguards are in place.”

"Spirit Flight Attendants and other former employees are on the tip of the spear of this new threat to workers' rights," said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, representing 55,000 Flight Attendants at 20 airlines including Spirit." Senator Warren, Representative Horsford and 119 of their colleagues, with very little time and without either chamber in session, acted quickly to urge protections for workers as they face immediate risk in the bankruptcy court. But the outcome of conditions on this proposed sale to Google carries tremendous implications for workers across the economy. We thank the lawmakers for their swift action in their oversight role, as they recognize the immediate concern for our Spirit members. Flight Attendants across the industry and workers across the economy also thank them for recognizing the dangerous precedent it could set in this new frontier of unregulated AI and the intrusion of privacy for all Americans."

“Spirit Airlines workers deserve better than having their private information become a bargaining chip in a $10 million AI data deal. We are demanding that Spirit and Google exclude employee information wherever possible and keep confidential safety reporting out of this transaction. Removing names is not enough—workers deserve a voice in the safeguards and enforceable protection against profiling or misuse of their information. The IAM Union is at the forefront of protecting workers in the age of AI and big data, and we will keep fighting to ensure new technology respects our members’ rights, privacy and dignity,” said IAM Union Air Transport Territory General Vice President Richie Johnsen.

Google has stated it will not receive personally identifiable information and that the data will undergo third-party scrubbing before transfer. The Members warn that removing names, email addresses, and other direct identifiers does not necessarily make a dataset anonymous, particularly when modern AI systems can identify patterns across large datasets and connect seemingly unrelated pieces of information. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has recognized that de-identified data can be re-identified in certain circumstances. 

“Spirit Airlines caused economic damage to workers, and now they are trying to hurt them even more by sharing sensitive data without proper safeguards," Transport Workers Union of America International President John Samuelsen said. "The least Spirit can do as it settles debts and gives Big Tech more data to train their AI models is to fully protect workers who gave years of hard work to the airline.”

This letter urges Google and Spirit to take specific actions before employee-related information is approved for transfer: exclude employee information from the transaction to the greatest extent possible, including records, timecards, payroll information, and Microsoft 365 content containing flight attendant information; establish a meaningful de-identification protocol developed with input from affected workers; maintain heightened protections for sensitive records such as disciplinary files, medical or accommodation requests, and compensation information, even after de-identification; conduct an independent employee confidentiality review and set enforceable limits on downstream use, disclosure, retention, and transfer; and establish a former review protocol that expressly prohibits using the data to identify, profile, evaluate, or draw inferences about identifiable groups of workers. 

"As the nation’s largest transportation labor federation, we represent hundreds of thousands of workers who build, operate, and maintain transportation network across the United States," said Greg Regan, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD). "As our society confronts a new technology era, regulators, legislators, and organizations have a responsibility to set guardrails around its use. That includes privacy guardrails for employee data that is collected by employers and whether this sensitive information can be transferred or sold to another party. Employers are entrusted with highly sensitive employee records and communications, and workers deserve to have their data protected instead of being exposed to privacy risks. We commend Congressman Horsford and Senator Warren for leading this letter urging Spirit and Google to commit to guidelines for handling sensitive employee information if a data transfer occurs."  

"Spirit's workers shared personal information because their jobs required it, not so it could be sold to train AI," said Capt. Jason Ambrosi, President of ALPA. "Our safety system works because pilots and other airline workers trust that when they speak up, it stays confidential. Break that trust and people stop reporting. We thank Senator Warren and Representative Horsford and dozens of Members of Congress for acting quickly to seek answers before this sale is final. Google and Spirit must put real, enforceable protections in place before a single employee record changes hands."

The Members are calling for no employee-related information to be transferred until protections are in place to ensure that workers’ sensitive information cannot be identified, profiled, or misused. 

The full text of the letter can be found HERE.

119 members co-signed the letter with Rep. Horsford and Senator Warren, including Reps. Amo, Ansari, Barragán, Bell, Blair, Bonamici, Boyle, Brownley, Brown, Budzinski, Carson, Carter (GA), Casar, Castor, Chu, Clarke, Cohen, Conaway, Courtney, Craig, Crockett, Davids, Davis (IL), Davis (NC), DelBene, Deluzio, DeSaulnier, Dexter, Dingell, Elfreth, Espaillat, Fitzpatrick, Fletcher, Foster, Foushee, Frankel, Frost, Garamendi, García (IL), Garcia (CA), Garcia (FL), Goldman, Gomez, Grijalva, Hernández, Hoyle, Huffman, Jackson (IL), Jacobs, Jayapal, Johnson (GA), Kamlager-Dove, Kaptur, Kennedy, Khanna, Krishnamoorthi, Landsman, Larsen, Lee (PA), Lee (NV), Levin, Lieu, Lynch, Magaziner, Matsui, McBath, McClain Delaney, McClellan, McGovern, Mejia, Menefee, Meng, Mfume, Morrison, Norcross, Norton, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pappas, Pingree, Pocan, Pou, Ramirez, Ryan, Sánchez, Schakowsky, Sherman, Simon, Stansbury, Stevens, Strickland, Takano, Thanedar, Thompson (MS), Titus, Tlaib, Tonko, Torres (NY), Trahan, Vargas, Velázquez, Walkinshaw, Warnock, Wasserman Schultz, Waters, Watson Coleman, Williams, Wilson, and Sens. Blumenthal, Blunt Rochester, Cantwell, Cortez Masto, Duckworth, Kelly, Markey, Merkley, Sanders, Slotkin, Van Hollen, and Warnock