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

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.

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