Airline unions have withdrawn their objections to Google’s proposed $10 million purchase of Spirit Airlines’ business data after securing additional employee privacy safeguards. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said on November 10 that the coalition’s objections had been withdrawn the previous evening.
The union says excluded records include employee health and medical information, drug and alcohol testing records, disciplinary files, safety-program records and identification documents. Those exclusions address concerns about sensitive material accumulated during employees’ careers at the airline, which stopped flying in May.
AFA also says the revised terms require de-identification under the ISO 27559 standard and review by an independent verification agent selected in consultation with the unions. Google would be prohibited from attempting to re-identify individuals and required to handle the data confidentially in a secure environment.
The revised agreement is scheduled for bankruptcy court review on November 17. Withdrawal of the union objections does not complete the transaction. Google has previously said it wants the data to improve its products and AI models.
We covered the earlier postponement as employee-data concerns held up the sale. Passenger name records, ticket sales, inflight purchases, Wi-Fi sales and refund-system data were already excluded. The latest agreement adds worker-focused protections to the proposed transfer while court approval remains outstanding.
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