How NSA Has Harmed the US Economy

Reports from various sources on the Internet indicate that Snowden documents show the U.S. was spying on China using a server located in China, and possibly via “back doors” in U.S. manufactured telcom equipment purchased by the Chinese for their own use.

China’s response is to rid itself of U.S. telcom providers and U.S. manufactured telecom equipment as quickly as possible, replacing it with either Chinese-built equipment, or, if that’s not possible, equipment built in Europe. The big loser? U.S. telcom equipment providers and the U.S. economy.

Estimates are circulating that the cost of NSA snooping to U.S.-based cloud computing companies could be $21.5 to $35 billion in worldwide contracts over the next three years. Non-U.S. companies are executing a cut-and-run strategy, scared away by the knowledge that the NSA has in place total surveillance of U.S. based servers and telecom infrastructure.

An ITIF (Information Technology & Innovation Foundation) report says 36 percent of U.S. residents surveyed said the NSA leaks have made it more difficult for them to “do business outside the United States”. The report found that Europeans are trying to edge out their American competitors, and are enlisting their governments in this effort. Even before the recent spying revelations, governments in France and Germany were advocating national cloud efforts to counteract concerns that the U.S. Patriot Act could compromise the security of data stored by U.S. companies. France’s second largest carrier, NFR, rounded up $300 million to invest in a French competitor to Amazon. A German minister’s call for a boycott of U.S. cloud companies has been reported.

The only hope for U.S. based companies may be the information coming out about other countries spying habits. If total surveillance is seen as a problem afflicting most governments, competition might be less affected.

Here are some related reports from across the web: