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GREENSBORO — Whether you call it cloak-and-dagger or common data security, the folks at American Express plan to remain mum about the major data center they’re going to build in Guilford County.

The project, which could cost up to $600 million in its first phases, will be the biggest single corporate investment ever in Guilford County.

Yet in an era when corporate public relations officers think of news coverage as free advertising, American Express is running the other way. Other than short statements released by local economic developers, the company does not plan to make a formal announcement.

“We don’t typically talk about our tech facilities,” said Susan Korchak, a company spokeswoman.

The company does not want any publicity about data centers and their locations. Korchak declined to say where American Express operates other data centers, for example.

Data centers such as the American Express project are huge computer storage buildings that preserve company information.

The center planned in Guilford is such a high-profile project, said tech writer Russ McRee, that it is “really strange” American Express doesn’t take advantage of heavy public interest.

It goes without saying that data center operators are concerned about security issues, said McRee, who works for a Seattle information security news site, holisticinfosec.org. And standards are uniformly audited in the industry.

But that doesn’t mean companies must remain quiet about entire projects, he said.

“The fact that they choose to be dark about this data center implies a number of possibilities,” McRee said. “But they’re all speculative: Are they working on a new product? Are they just storing data? Is it for the feds?”

“They’re just not going to talk about security,” he said.

One reason may be that the credit card industry is especially edgy about threats to the security of its members’ private account data.

In early 2009, for example, Heartland Payment Systems of Princeton, N.J., announced that someone had broken into its computers and loaded “malware” that allowed the thieves to download information from various credit card companies.

SC Magazine, an online service for information technology professionals, reported that American Express was among Heartland’s customers who were victims of the breech.

In December 2009, American Express received $3.6 million in a settlement from Heartland, the magazine reported.

Greensboro economic developers would confirm last week only that the company plans to build here. They said American Express would have to approve any further comment.

American Express will build two buildings in eastern Guilford County. One will go up at a 100-acre site at Rock Creek Center, an industrial park south of Interstate 40-85 that is seven miles east of Greensboro.

The other building will be at an undeveloped corporate park across I-40 from the first site. That site is owned by developer Roy Carroll.

The larger building will be built first at Rock Creek and cover 350,000 square feet. The second will be 150,000 square feet.

Ultimately, the center could employ as many as 150 workers. The company plans to build the project without any public economic development incentives.

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com