NSA Spying Could Cost US Tech Firms Billions

[Alan C.]

Tech Companies Reel as NSA's Spying Tarnishes Reputations 

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...ServInt Corp., a Reston, Virginia-based company that provides website hosting services, has seen a 30 percent decline in foreign customers since the NSA leaks began in June 2013, said Christian Dawson, its chief operating officer.“It ends up being death by a thousand paper cuts,” Dawson said in a phone interview.. . .ServInt clients told Dawson they no longer have the tolerance to allow their data to be hosted by a company based in the U.S.Additional actions are needed to reduce the negative impact on American companies facing declining sales and lost business opportunities, such as legislation limiting spying on foreigners and developing policies about when it’s justified for the government to secretly install malware on computers, the Open Technology Institute said.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...

 

I'm sure it also doesn't engender confidence when the government seizes racks of servers in a data center.

[J. D. Stembal]

There is an argument for getting any information associated with you off of company servers. Keep your information out of the hands of government agents. For the past few months, I have been actively removing my internet presence off of private servers. I deleted my Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster account which are all the social media websites I've ever used. It's a shame that Google forces you to have a G+ profile now to use You Tube. I also nuked my Steam account, and many e-commerce websites that I no longer use. That reminds me I should get rid of my NewEgg account. They were once a great retailer, but no longer.

[Alan C.]

It's official: NSA spying is hurting the US tech economy

 

A new report confirmed key brands, including Cisco, Apple, Intel, and McAfee -- among others -- have been dropped from the Chinese government's list of authorized brands, a Reuters report said Wednesday.

 

. . .

...Cisco probably suffered the worst of all.

Earlier this month at its fiscal second-quarter earnings, the networking giant said it took a 19 percent revenue ding in China, amid claims the NSA was installing backdoors and implants on its routers in transit.

[Alan C.]

U.S. tech companies expected to lose more than $35 billion due to NSA spying

 

U.S. companies will likely lose more than $35 billion in foreign business as a result of the vast NSA-surveillance operations revealed by Edward Snowden, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).

"Foreign customers are shunning U.S. companies," the report asserts, causing American businesses to lose out on foreign contracts and pushing other countries to create protectionist policies that block American businesses out of foreign markets.

[luxfelix]

There is an argument for getting any information associated with you off of company servers. Keep your information out of the hands of government agents. For the past few months, I have been actively removing my internet presence off of private servers. I deleted my Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster account which are all the social media websites I've ever used. It's a shame that Google forces you to have a G+ profile now to use You Tube. I also nuked my Steam account, and many e-commerce websites that I no longer use. That reminds me I should get rid of my NewEgg account. They were once a great retailer, but no longer.

 

Does deleting accounts work?