When whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the U.S National Security Agency and the technology companies’ secret collaboration, it had been expected to create huge damages on the industry’s financial performance in other countries. However, there are reasons to believe that those revelations did less impact on the companies.
Despite prediction of dwindling business prospects, some of those big Internet companies have expressed in private to Reuters that they have felt minimal if any impact on their businesses. These businesses that the former NSA contractor revealed to be tightly involved in collecting data on people around the world include Facebook and Google.
Sources from Microsoft and Amazon which feature remote computing services otherwise known as cloud computing also admitted that they don’t see any problem in their businesses.
On the other hand, smaller U.S companies providing encryption and security-related services are seeing improvement in business located overseas together with an increase in domestic sales as private individuals and corporate companies find stricter measures to protect secrets.
As soon as Snowden leaked the documents revealing the detailed collaboration which gave NSA exclusive access to the accounts of the net companies’ tens of thousands of users, those big names in the Internet industry and their allies eventually brought out a warning and a prediction. They have predicted that American businesses would lose revenues amounting to tens of billions of dollars as a result of having distrustful customers that are seeking local alternatives.
Employees from Google told Reuters that the company didn’t see any significant impact on its business. Likewise, a person has divulged that as far as Microsoft’s business in Europe is concerned, it hasn’t displayed any issues at all. When it comes to Amazon, a spokeswoman declared that global demand has never been huge.
Several theories have tried to explain the minimal business impact that has resulted from Snowden’s leaks. For one thing, cloud customers have very few reliable alternatives since the market has been dominated by U.S companies and switching can be expensive. Another explanation is the fact that tech-buying companies in other countries believe that even their own governments have the same scanning procedures that are as invasive as the ones used by the Americans.
