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> When the NSA mentioned connections between datacenters were tapped, I believe FAANG immediately end-to-end encrypted links between datacenters...

This is correct, at least for Google. I worked at Google when the Snowden leaks happened and there was an immediate company-wide push to encrypt all server-to-server traffic.

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... but wouldn't all DC to DC traffic be over an encrypted site-to-site VPN anyway?

Google and Amazon have their own dedicated fiber between DC sites, but there was evidence that the NSA was still tapping it at some points. So they added encryption between the sites as an extra safeguard.

Not quite, they allowed NSA explicitly, and now they have their own decryption keys. Whereever did you get the idea google hid data from the nsa?

From people I know working Data Center Ops at Google. They were super pissed about the NSA tapping at the time and steps were definitely taken to further encrypt their data in transit.

Of course executives at Google may have handed over a set of keys to the NSA after this was done. If I had to bet I would say that the NSA has more than one way to get whatever data they want from any of the top tech companies. Either via stealing, insiders or coercion they have many options.

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