More than 120 U.S. lawmakers are raising concerns about Google’s planned $10 million acquisition of internal Spirit Airlines data to train AI systems, according to an October 8 Reuters report.

The lawmakers’ concerns center on what happens to employee-generated and employee-related data when a company ceases operations and its corporate data is sold as an asset.

They asked Google to exclude employee information from the transaction “to the greatest extent possible,” arguing that the scale of modern AI makes privacy protections around employee information increasingly important.

Employee Data Draws Scrutiny

Lawmakers led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Steven Horsford said the proposed sale would include about 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, and other employee records. 

Google has said that personal information would either be excluded from the transaction or de-identified by an independent third party before Google receives it. The dispute illustrates the growing tension between treating enterprise data as a transferable business asset and protecting the privacy and appropriate use of employee information.

What Happens to Data When a Company Shuts Down?

The transaction highlights a data-governance problem that can emerge when corporate data becomes an asset.

Chief data officers (CDOs) need to establish what categories of information can be used for AI training, whose permissions apply, whether employee data has been properly classified, and what de-identification standards must be met before data leaves the organization.

That makes data governance increasingly relevant to AI strategy. As more enterprise data becomes valuable for model development, CDOs may need to account for AI-use rights and privacy requirements when defining how corporate data can be retained, transferred, or monetized.