In a report by Reuters, Google Inc went to great lengths keeping its latest infrastructure project under wraps. According to federal government employees, Google had been insisting on signing a non-disclosure agreement to anyone who had been exposed to the project in construction.

US Coast Guard spokesman Barry Bena confirmed that at least one of the employees at Coast Guard had signed the agreement. An unidentified California government agency inspector claimed he had also signed a confidentiality agreement and surrendered his mobile phone in the process. The local government inspector had business in Building 3 just off San Francisco Bay.

Technology website CNET speculated earlier that the floating vessel situated just off the Treasure Island military base was a floating data center. A local station claimed that the barge could be a Google Glass retail area. The barge is listed to By and Large LLC, said local reporters. A similar barge also by By and Large was spotted in Portland.

Google is known to spend a large chunk of capital in building data centers across the globe. For the second quarter alone, Google spent USD1.06 bilion, which was more than double the amount spent on the same period last year. Last year, Google spent USD770 million on data center infrastructure.