Amazon Drops NDAs With Governments, Will Show Data Center Plans to Residents Sooner

Amazon says it will no longer sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with the government agencies it works with on data center projects. An NDA is a commitment that keeps the details of negotiations from being disclosed. Amazon said it will hold community information sessions and share project plans as early as possible. The move amounts to a change in how the company handles these negotiations, in response to concerns about electricity bills, water use, and local benefits surrounding data center construction.

What changes for residents

Residents will learn about project plans sooner. Amazon said it will not enter into NDAs with government agencies and will also create opportunities to brief residents on its plans.

Amazon also made commitments about who bears costs, local investment, and disclosure of resource consumption. The aim is to address the questions residents raise about electricity bills and water use. For any individual project, residents will want to examine who bears which costs, how much energy and water a facility uses, and what benefits flow back to the community.

Microsoft is stopping too

Microsoft has also announced that it will stop using NDAs with local governments. The company said it will identify agreements it has already signed around the world, contact the local governments involved, and negotiate to end them. It said it had used such agreements in the past to protect commercial and security information during the early stages of data center development.

Dropping the agreements does not mean every piece of information becomes public. Microsoft said that trade secrets and similar information required for permitting can still be withheld to the extent the law allows. It also noted that some project details are not finalized until development is further along.

More than $1 billion for communities

Amazon also introduced “Built Together,” a program for US communities that host its data centers. The company plans to spend more than $1 billion over the next five years on top of its existing activities. The money will go toward education and job training, as well as support related to energy and water. Amazon said support for college education will begin within a few months.

The investment is targeted at the areas where its US data centers are located. Amazon said it will no longer sign NDAs with government agencies, while Microsoft said it will also move to end agreements it has already signed.

The two announcements reflect an effort to change how residents are informed during the data center development process. What to watch next is how the information sessions and plan sharing actually play out, and whether the commitments on costs and resource use hold up in individual projects. Another open question is whether dropping the agreements reduces residents’ concerns and opposition.