As a result of NSA”s snooping, U.S. companies are seeking refuge overseas to protect their data. And U.S. companies aren’t the only ones who are now feeling suspicious about privacy issues on the internet. Numerous governments are turning away from the IT community in the U.S., and it turns out that Silicon Valley is not immune to the fallout from revelations about widespread surveillance by the NSA. In fact, the Valley is bracing itself for losses in the range of $35 billion in annual revenue. Why such a big loss? Companies are seeking storage of their data elsewhere.
Indeed, damaging information about NSA’s tactics is spurring an IT renaissance in several countries. For instance, Brazil wants data about its own citizens stored there. So, the government is pushing a bill, once languishing most likely in some dead-end queue, to create servers to store data, ensuring that it won’t be looked at by NSA eyes. European leaders are asking for a “Euro cloud.” This Euro cloud would allow Europeans to share data with one another, but it would stop there – those outside of Europe would not be able to access the information. Google and Yahoo Inc. might be in for an ugly surprise, too. Apparently, India is moving forward with a measure that would prohibit government employees to use the mail services of these two companies. It is unclear whether or not they have already moved forward with this ban.
Despite these measures, it is unlikely that data will be protected from snoopers, because other countries are eager to catch up to Washington’s spying capabilities. So such measures are most likely futile, as it is probably inevitable that surveillance systems, if not already in place, will be built or improved upon outside of the United States.
What’s the reality? So-called private data on the internet is not really protected, and outfits, such as the NSA, will always have access to so-called protected information. That said, citizens as well as companies are unnerved by the revelations about spying that Snowden, the former NSA contractor and whistle blower, brought to light this past summer.
