Spirit Airlines' sale of employee data is a non-starter

Bankrupt Spirit Airlines, in its bankruptcy proceedings, is attempting to sell its data to Google for $10 million to train AI systems, including a large amount of employee data. EPIC attorneys Abigail Kunkler and Mayu Tobin-Miyaji wrote that the sale agreement only mentions consumer data and privacy, not employee privacy protections. The proposed data for sale includes employee records since 1986, time cards, payroll records, tax forms, emails, and Microsoft Teams messages. The flight attendants' union AFA-CWA filed an objection, and EPIC and Professor Seema N. Patel (represented by the Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic) submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York supporting the union. According to the latest AFA filing, Spirit has agreed to exclude medical, disability, and drug and alcohol testing records, and has begun discussions on de-identifying the remaining data; the authors argue that de-identification may still be subject to re-identification.