Members of Congress send letter to Spirit and Google CEOs objecting to data sale
Washington, DC – On October 8, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Steven Horsford sent a joint Congressional letter, signed by 121 U.S. Senators and Representatives, to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Spirit CEO Dave Davis, sounding the alarm on members’ “serious concern” about the proposed $10 million sale of Spirit Airlines’ internal data to Google to train artificial intelligence systems. The unprecedented sale is a pivotal moment in the fight to protect all workers’ data and privacy as technology advances unchecked from regulation.
“This sale presents uncharted territory,” the members of Congress wrote, “the proposed sale would involve an extraordinary volume of Spirit’s internal records, including approximately 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, employee records, timecard records, payroll and tax information, and employment contracts. This information was created and provided in the context of an employment relationship and may contain highly sensitive information about individual workers.”