The United States surveillance scandal has frightened some big names within the tech world. They let the government know just how they felt during a Wednesday meeting which aimed at examining the potential ramifications of the country’s spy activities.
Taking place in Palo Alto, California, the summit had the likes of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt
, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith, and Dropbox representative Ramsey Homsany, according to CNET. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon was placed front and center as the panelists expressed their concerns about privacy and surveillance. Schmidt warned that the impact is not only “severe and getting worse,” but could end up “breaking the Internet.”Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, blew the whistle on the government’s surveillance activities by releasing official documents that showed spy activities chronicling Web users’ extensive experience. The speakers focused on the global effect of Snowden’s revelations and highlighted how some governments are seeking to make tech firms build data centers within their borders in an attempt to improve security.
American firms such as Verizon, which recently lost its contract with the German government, have already been hit hard by the fallout from the NSA scandal. Snowden’s documents suggested that more than 120 world leaders were
targeted for surveillance by the NSA, German leader Angela Merkel among them. Microsoft’s Brad Smith broke it down simply by saying that in the same way someone would not leave their money with a bank one doesn’t trust, neither would a person use an Internet they don’t trust.SOURCE: National Journal