About the Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs).
NDAs typically arise when a company with proprietary technology intends to have a voluntary discussion about the technology, or stuff relating to it, with another company that has equal rights. The three ingredients are: (i) technology, (ii) technology that is proprietary and (iii) parties with equal standing.
1. In this instance, it is the FAA (not Boeing) who asked for the NDAs. Why? What technology, proprietary or not, does the FAA own?
2. The relationship between Boeing and the FAA is not that of two independent parties with equal standing. The FAA has a statutory right to inquire into the workings of Boeing's product. I assume that the FAA has the right to ask any question it wants about any system it chooses. What would happen, for example, if Boeing refused to let the FAA see some of the software code? The FAA is entitled to see everything; and it is not practical for Boeing to refuse. Even so, Boeing could ask the FAA to execute an NDA that would prevent its staff from disclosing anything to third parties without Boeing's approval. It would make sense if Boeing was asking for the NDAs, but that is not what is being reported.
3. On the other hand, these NDAs might not have anything to do with proprietary technology. Perhaps they are intended to keep what is said during negotiations under wraps. Public confidence could be shaken if it became known, for example, that agency XAA was very concerned about detail XYZ, and suggested that Being deal with it by doing thus and so, but, in the final "deal" among the regulators, detail XYZ was put aside and not fixed at all.
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