Thread

1. tptacek · 1791145040 · focus · HN ↗

   So, basically, not a meaningful amount of water at all. Credit to the story authors for taking the time to frame what 13MM gallons actually works out to.

   1. dom96 · 1791150948 · focus · HN ↗

      Why aren’t the data centres just honest about their water usage if it’s seemingly so low?

      1. flippingheck · 1791152288 · focus · HN ↗

         Transparency is not the same thing as honesty.

         Companies might want to avoid this being used as a side channel to infer the amount of their compute.

         Companies might want to avoid setting a precedent where activists can demand such information.

         Companies might want to avoid the effort of publishing this data, or the risk of publishing incorrect data.

         1. chii · 1791180308 · focus · HN ↗

            > Companies might want to avoid this being used as a side channel to infer the amount of their compute.

            none of these are reason for the country not to demand transparent data for monitoring.

            Being able to monitor things properly has high societal value - it prevents fraud (more data being visible makes it harder to fake). It prevents skirting regulations, and makes it easier for competitors to sniff out high margin opportunities (which serves to break monopolies in some sense).

            Not to mention that statistics collected could have value in aggregate in research sometime in the future.

            Like auditing and accounting, the country should mandate transparent data reporting of utilities usage for all industries.

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