Amazon, Microsoft and Google pledge more transparency on data center after NDA concerns

Three of the nation’s largest technology companies are promising greater transparency about their data centers after Channel 2 Action News Investigates uncovered nondisclosure agreements between tech companies and Georgia governments that blocked public access to information about the massive facilities.

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Amazon, Microsoft and Google have announced plans to end or phase out the use of nondisclosure agreements, commonly known as NDAs, with local governments involving data center projects.

Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray previously obtained agreements between data center companies and Georgia governments that contained extensive redactions.

In one development agreement with the Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority, even the name of the company involved was blacked out.

Other records obtained by Channel 2 Action News Investigates included a nondisclosure agreement involving Microsoft.

“People all over Georgia and all across the country really have been demanding more transparency,” April Lipscomb, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said.

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The transparency concerns have grown as enormous hyperscale data centers continue to expand across Georgia. Some facilities are so large that Channel 2 Action News has used NewsChopper 2 to show their full scale from the air.

But Channel 2 Action News Investigates found information about the deals those companies have made with Georgia governments much harder to obtain.

A Google agreement with the Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority contained page after page of redactions. Information involving specific water usage and water requirements had been blacked out.

“They are being used to protect information that the public has a right to know,” Lipscomb said.

In sperate blog posts Amazon, Microsoft and Google have now announced plans to end or phase out the use of NDAs with local governments for data center projects.

Amazon wrote, “We no longer use nondisclosure agreements with the government agencies we work with on our projects.”

Google said it will “eliminate the use of NDAs with state and local governments.”

Microsoft described the move as “the next step in our work to deliver greater transparency.”

Microsoft told Channel 2 Action News in a statement that after announcing the move, “we then started working through the process of terminating any active NDAs we had in place with local governments. This includes municipal utilities.”

“They can’t keep repeating the same efforts to maintain the secrecy because they’re going to get pushback and their projects are going to get denied,” Lipscomb said.

The announcements come as Georgia’s data center industry continues to rapidly expand.

Channel 2 Action News analyzed new numbers from Data Center Map showing 331 data centers are planned, under construction or already operating in Georgia.

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