NSA »Revelations of spying on Snowden affected … – Diario de Pernambuco

US technology companies were more affected than expected by the revelations of surveillance programs led by the National Security Agency (NSA) – according to a study published on Tuesday

The study of the Information Technology Foundation and. Innovation, a think tank in Washington, said the impact would be greater than its estimate of nearly two years of losses for the cloud computing industry.

In 2013, the think tank estimated that companies Cloud computing United States could lose between 22 and 35 billion dollars in overseas business over three years.

Now it seems impossible to quantify the economic damage, as the entire industry was tainted by scandal Documents leaked revelations by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden, the report said.

“These revelations fundamentally undermined international confidence in US technology companies and hurt the country’s business outlook with the rest of the world,” said the document.

Daniel Castro , co-author of the study, said the impact is open, with the scandal of the NSA reaching a wide range of US technology companies

Since 2013, “we can not reverse this damage:. not are only technology companies in clouds that were hit. All companies from all areas of technology were struck. ” “And this crisis shows no signs of stopping,” said Castro told AFP.

The report said that foreign customers are increasingly moving away from US companies, and governments around the world “are using the US surveillance as an excuse to enact a new wave of protectionist policies “.

A survey cited by the researchers found that 25% of companies in the UK and Canada planning to pull your data out of the United States as a result of the revelations of NSA.

Some companies in Europe do not want their data hosted in North America due to these concerns, the researchers said.

Meanwhile, foreign companies have used the revelations as a marketing opportunity.

“There is also the increasingly distressing tendency to countries like Australia, China, Russia and India, passing laws that prevent the personal information of its citizens to leave the country’s borders – effectively determining which computer companies cloud build data centers in these countries or are at risk of losing access to their markets. ”

The report said several US technology companies, including Apple and Salesforce have started to build data centers abroad “to appease foreign watchdogs and privacy advocates”.

Although this “data nationalism” may create some short-term jobs, Castro said that countries articulating these policies “are hurting themselves in the long run, getting out the best in terms of technology.”

– New insufficient law –

Castro said the approval of a reform measure last week on Freedom of the Law is not enough to repair the reputation of the US technology companies.

The report recommends further reforms, including improving transparency of surveillance practices, opposing the government’s efforts to weaken the encryption and strengthen their legal assistance treaties mutual with other nations.

“Over the past few years, the failure of the US government to significantly reform their surveillance practices had a serious economic impact in the technology sector, and the overall cost continues to grow every day, “noted Castro.

According to the expert, the Law of Liberty, which restrains the bulk data collection among his reforms, is” a good law and a step in the right direction. We have ignored the US surveillance of economic impact. “