The leading tech companies such as Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) have been facing numerous challenges over US internet surveillance that gets access to private and sensitive information about users. Many companies have voiced concerns that the activities at the Silicon Valley might cause them long term damage.
Silicon Valley’s top executives and several investors also agree that the effect of such surveillance could amount to a backlash of unprecedented levels that might result in huge business losses for the tech giants.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) are among the leading internet companies that have face criticism of collecting private consumer data that end up in the wrong hands. A number of service providers have also received National Security Letters demanding information from them.
“Silicon Valley is quite oblivious to the degree to which this crescendo of concern is building up in Europe. It’s an extremely important thing and Silicon Valley is underestimating it badly,” said Peter Thiel, a Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) investor.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) too has had to undergo a lot of heat from several sectors with many entities expressing concerns that the search engine owner isn’t doing much to protect them. The tech giant has also faced some pressure from the European Commission in a case that led to the ruling that some links be removed from the company’s European searches.
“I was surprised it turned this quickly,” Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), said of the political mood change over US tech. However, he denied that Silicon Valley didn’t see that coming. “It’s easy to blame the tech companies for being insufficiently sensitive – we are way sensitive, trust me.”
Users of these services give a lot of information online unaware that such information end up in the hands of unintended agencies. The US government’s internet surveillance activities have infuriated many, leading to damages that if not acted upon now will cause Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and other tech companies irreparable damages.
Some other companies that offer cloud computing have also faced damages resulting from privacy concerns.
This article has been written by Victor Ochieng.
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