Google’s bid for Spirit’s data is a reminder that your work emails aren’t really yours
The digital trail that employees create at work has become a hot commodity for companies looking to build and train AI models — sometimes, as with Spirit Airlines, outlasting the businesses that accumulated it.
Google won a bidding war, paying $10 million for Spirit’s internal data, according to a bankruptcy court filing dated August 14. The trove includes the airline’s internal documents, workflows, emails, some 500 million Teams messages, and its codebase. It excludes customer data and has been anonymized, Google said.
Spirit stopped flying in May after going bankrupt. It employed about 9,700 full-time workers in 2025, according to its most recent annual report.
For Google, the deal appears to be a bargain. For Spirit employees — and workers everywhere — it’s a reminder that work emails and other workplace communications ultimately aren’t yours.
What’s changing is the value of that information, and what companies might do with it. The data generated through everyday work could, for example, be used to train AI assistants to handle customer complaints or help developers debug websites.
Earlier this year, AI training startup Micro1 announced a program offering 50 midsize companies between $100,000 and $2 million for access to anonymized data.
Business Insider spoke with attorneys about what workers should know about the data they generate on the job and how to protect their privacy.
Most of the time, your digital handiwork — from the email to the boss you spent an hour perfecting to the droll Teams messages you sent to your work bestie — belongs to the company.
Those records are becoming more valuable as demand for AI training data grows, said Jared Pope, an employment attorney and CEO of HR platform Work Shield, which manages workplace misconduct. Pope said he’s spoken with CEOs and company owners receiving calls from companies that want to buy their workplace data.
“It could be extremely valuable to the bottom line of a company,” he said.
That’s one reason it can be worth asking about data-retention policies when you start or leave, Pope said.
Many companies are still figuring out their AI policies.
George Socha, an attorney and senior vice president of brand awareness at AI e-discovery platform Reveal, said there is no single standard place where companies outline their policies around employee data and workplace surveillance.
Companies “ought to be trying to establish appropriate, reasonable boundaries and then conveying them clearly to employees and making sure the employees understand them,” Socha said.
Until businesses establish more rigid policies, though, it’s a bit of a free-for-all. Employers may discuss those policies during onboarding, when introducing employees to the tools available to them and explaining how to use them.
Employees can also contact HR to ask where they can find the company’s policies on employee data and workplace monitoring, Socha said.
It’s generally up to companies to decide whether they want to sell de-identified data, said Pope.
That possibility is a good reminder for workers to be mindful about what they put on their work devices.
“Your work email and chat are actually not a diary,” he said. “Assume anything you create on a company system could outlive your own job there.”
Most of the sensitive personal information your employer has about you — things like Social Security numbers and other information — is likely to be protected by various state laws, said Vanessa Matsis-McCready, VP of HR services and associate general counsel at HR company Engage PEO.
That’s the case, even if your employer goes under. “Bankruptcy laws are not going to override that,” she said.
At the same time, Matsis-McCready said, it’s worth maintaining a defensive posture when it comes to not using your work laptop, for example, for personal tasks. Another reason: the possibility of data leaks.
For Pope, it’s another reason for employees to be smart about the digital trail they create on the job.
“Be careful with what you put out there, because it doesn’t go away,” he said.
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Google’s bid for Spirit’s data is a reminder that your work emails aren’t really yours
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