Amazon says it will stop using non-disclosure agreements when negotiating data center deals with local governments, following a similar move from Microsoft earlier this year. The decision comes as secrecy around AI infrastructure has fueled community backlash; opposition has led to hundreds of proposed and enacted moratoriums from New York to San Francisco.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Anthony Ha, Sean O’Kane, and Rebecca Bellan discuss whether dropping NDAs will actually change how data center deals get done, and whether the move is enough to build trust. The conversation also turns to a wave of startups betting that consumers will hand AI agents access to their inboxes, files, and credit cards — provided the startups can get websites to let them in. For those companies, the episode argues, trust may be the real product.

The episode is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and other podcast platforms, and also covers a couple of deals of the week.