Google will stop asking local officials to sign secrecy agreements for data center projects, so residents may hear about plans sooner.
Google will no longer ask local officials to sign nondisclosure agreements when it looks for places to build data centers. Amazon and Microsoft have already stopped the same practice. If a data center is planned near you, your local leaders may now be free to tell you earlier.
A nondisclosure agreement, often called an NDA, is a contract that bars someone from sharing information. Companies scouting sites had used them with local officials. That kept the officials from talking about a project while the company was still deciding where to build.
Activists criticized the practice as not transparent to the communities affected. Google is now dropping it, joining two of the biggest names in the industry.
The change touches people who live near possible data center sites, plus the town and county officials who deal with these companies. Data centers are large buildings full of computers that run online services. Residents often want to know about them early because they can affect a community.
The available details are thin. The material does not say when Google's change takes effect. It does not say whether officials will have to share information, or only that they are no longer barred from doing so. It also does not list the other steps Google and other companies are taking on this issue.
Google, Amazon and Microsoft have dropped NDAs for data center scouting, so local officials may be able to talk about projects sooner.
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