tech
Flight attendants freaked out that Google is buying tons of Spirit employee data
Bankrupt Spirit accused of selling out workers in massive data sale to Google.
TL;DR
- Google won an auction to acquire a vast dataset from Spirit Airlines, focusing on employment and workplace records.
- Google committed to de-identifying personal information to protect consumers, overseen by a court-appointed ombudsman.
- Former Spirit flight attendants are objecting, fearing their confidential information is not adequately protected and could be re-identified.
- The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) argues that consumer protection laws, used for data de-identification, do not cover worker confidentiality.
- The dataset includes extensive employee data such as emails, HR information, payroll, and productivity metrics.
- Critics like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) oppose using employee data for AI training without consent.
- The AFA is asking the court to deny the sale unless Google excludes flight attendant information or provides equivalent protections.
- Concerns exist about Google potentially re-identifying data by combining it with other datasets, despite commitments against intentional re-identification.
- Past privacy violations by Google are cited as a reason for distrust.
- The AFA notes that most consumer data categories are excluded, while nearly all employee data categories are included in the sale.