Another boon to the US economy, or, not so much.
U.S. technology companies are in danger of losing more business to foreign competitors if the National Security Agency’s power to spy on customers isn’t curbed, researchers with the New America Foundation said in a report today.
The report, by the foundation’s Open Technology Institute, called for prohibiting the NSA from collecting data in bulk, while letting companies report more details about what information they give the government. Senate legislation introduced today would fulfill some recommendations by the institute, a Washington-based advocacy group that has been critical of NSA programs.
Citing concerns from top executives of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and other companies, the report made a case that NSA spying could damage the $150 billion industry for cloud computing services. Those services are expanding rapidly as businesses move software and data to remote servers.
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Microsoft joined with Yahoo! Inc., Google Inc. and other companies in a coalition calling for broad restrictions on NSA spying.
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U.S. technology companies may lose as much as $35 billion in the next three years from foreign customers choosing not to buy their products over concern they cooperate with spy programs, according to an earlier study by the Washington-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
China Sales
Cisco became one of the first companies to go public with concerns about NSA spying. The revelations affected sales in China and caused customers in other countries to hesitate when making decisions about buying products, John Chambers, chairman and chief executive officer for the San Jose, California-based company, said during an earnings conference call in November.
In a May 15 letter to President Barack Obama, Chambers said confidence in a free and open Internet “is eroded” by revelations of government surveillance and called for “a new set of rules of the road.”
A Cisco spokesman, John Earnhardt, declined to comment on whether the company has continued to see slow sales, saying its fiscal year fourth-quarter earnings will be reported Aug. 13.
The government of Germany also has announced that it plans to cancel a contract with Verizon Communications Inc. in response to the spying disclosures.
It’s not possible to put an exact dollar figure on the cost of lost business for U.S. companies as a result of the NSA revelations, Dawson and Hopfensperger said.
“If a customer goes directly to a non-U.S provider for something, you never know that you didn’t get the call,” Hopfensperger said.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-29/tech-companies-reel-as-nsa-spying-mars-image-for-clients.htmlWatch it be the mega tech industry's profit margin that is the beacon to some sort of reigning in of the NSA. If the gov doesn't care about privacy rights, people will go elsewhere and bypass them thus hurting their mega corps. This could've all been prevented if they weren't so power hungry and brash about it. Thanks again, Ed!
