U.S. Tech's Costly Trust Gap
The backlash against NSA snooping could cost U.S. companies billions
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All around the world, governments are devising creative ways to torment American technology companies. It began last year after leaks revealed that the U.S. government basically uses services such as Google and Facebook as arms of the surveillance state. In response, some countries—including Germany, Brazil, and now France—have toyed with the idea of forcing Internet companies to route traffic or store data locally.
As public policy, this is inept technologically and economically. As symbolism, it illustrates the damage that overly ambitious espionage can cause. And it reinforces, yet again, how insecure the foundations of the digital marketplace are.