Did Obama Just Destroy the U.S. Internet Industry?

[_subgenius]

News about the National Security Agency's PRISM program and its privileged access to internal user data at 9 U.S. Internet companies has unleashed a torrent of justified anger and hand-wringing. But the worries do not go far enough. Almost everybody is still looking at this through a narrow domestic lens. Our values and goals may be more challenged than you think.

The implications are not just about what happens to the privacy of Americans and to the future of American political due process. There are potentially vast negative global consequences. Giving the U.S. government special rights to data from U.S. companies sets a terrible precedent, and is hugely short-sighted.

The Internet is intrinsically a global business and social landscape. Yet up until now American companies have overwhelmingly dominated it. They have done so with astonishing innovation and technical achievement. Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Skype, Yahoo, and YouTube — all companies said to be participating in PRISM — are the world's most important digital platforms for communications and information. The economic and political benefits both to the U.S. and to the world of this domination are obvious. Not only are they by far the world's most valuable set of businesses for investors. They have created extraordinary value for their users by fostering an openness and landscape for free expression and dialogue that is unprecedented.

How much of this astonishing success are we willing to sacrifice on the altar of domestic security?
(emphasis mine)
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/arti ... rt-large_0

"Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.
...
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin

[_moksha]

How naïve are people not to have realized what the NSA was up to? Anyway, the new NSA Super-Super Computer installation in Bluffdale, Utah will employee many BYU grads who know not to ask questions and to keep mum, unless questioned by Authorities with higher keys.

[_Jutta]

Every country of the world has the right to gather information to protect oneself. Also without the knowledge of the persons or companies which are skimmed off. So one has caught bin Laden. So some terrorist attacks could be prevented; or being cleared up fast.
In Germany and Europe the program is abused for anti-American propagandas but Germany and France did the same and profit from the knowledge of the NSA. Damned bunch of hypocrites!

[_subgenius]

The OP intended to examine the influence this circumstance would have on business...introspection about security notwithstanding, how will this whole situation impact the business model being described?