Will U.S. Tech Companies Be Punished for NSA Spying?

“People won’t use technology they don’t trust," Brad Smith, general counsel and executive VP of legal at Microsoft, said in an ominous statement this week. "Governments have put this trust at risk, and governments need to help restore it.”

That statement was posted to a new website called Reform Government Surveillance, which is part of a new initiative from Microsoft and seven other big tech companies to pressure representatives in Washington to limit government surveillance. The effort, which also included an open letter published in national newspapers, caps off several months of public outbursts from these companies expressing concerns about how their businesses may be impacted by the ongoing controversy over the National Security Agency's surveillance tactics Read more...