Someone in Australia wants server sales hidden from view

Is it spooks building something big or a cloud trying to stay off the radar?

Someone has successfully applied to hide data on CPU and/or server imports to Australia in June 2016.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' new Confidential Commodities List for July 2016 lists “Digital processing units whether or not presented with the rest of the system which may contain storage units, input units or output units” as having been made confidential for June. The Register understands that classification can mean CPUs and/or servers. The Confidential Commodities List says the request excluded PCs, mini-computers and super-computers.

As The Register has previously learned, vendors or buyers can apply to have purchases removed from trade data if it is felt disclosure would signal a transaction or the dimensions of a deal.

The applicants for for such exclusions are not divulged, nor are their reasons for seeking confidentiality.

Which leads us to wonder who wants server and/or CPU sales hidden for a month?

Help us out, readers. Did a big cloud concern just import a lot of something? Did one of Australia's intelligence agencies start work on something big we're not allowed to know about? Hit the comments or write to me if you'd rather keep your theories between you and I. ®