US cloud computing industry faces US$35 billion PRISM fallout
A new report by a non-aligned United States think tank warns the American cloud computing industry could take a major earnings hit, thanks to former NSA employee Edward Snowden's revelations of indiscriminate government mass surveillance.
In the report [PDF], the Information Technology and Innovation foundation (ITIF) said if non-American companies decided the risks of storing data with US firms outweighed the benfits, the collection of electronic data from third-paties "will likely have immediate and lasting impact on the competitiveness on the US cloud computing industry".
A significant amount of revenue is at stake for US companies, the ITIF estimated. At the low end, US cloud computing providers could lose US$21.5 billion (A$24 billion) in revenue over the next thre years; that estimate is based on a modest ten per cent loss of the overseas market to European and Asian competitors.
