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One thing I don't quite understand - why these companies won't move to other countries with better privacy? Is it only because of huge bureaucratic and logistic
by kruczek 12y ago
One thing I don't quite understand - why these companies won't move to other countries with better privacy? Is it only because of huge bureaucratic and logistical effort that would be required, or are there some laws which prevent "emigration" of companies, or is it that they would have to provide such data anyway, if they want to operate in US too (but then at least people in other countries would be beyond US gov's harassment)?
- pjc50 12y agoHow could you run a startup outside San Francisco? /sarcasm More seriously, if you decided you could do this in (say) Switzerland, you'd have to move the company there and all of the admin staff to prevent them being suborned by the NSA. Most countries you'd want to move to have lengthy immigration procedures. The cost is huge, not just financial but cutting yourself off. Remember, if you truly annoy the intelligence agencies, you'll go on the no-fly or visa denial lists, and you'll never be able to visit your family again. Just look at Snowden. It's a political problem. No surveillance without acountability.
- adventured 12y agoUS companies of meaningful size that attempted to do so, would soon find new laws restricting their ability to leave. Congress and the President moved quickly to stop tax inversion deals recently. They'd do the exact same thing on the basis of national security were major intelligence assets to attempt to leave. The US Government will not give up the massive global information network it possesses in the way of Google / Apple / Facebook / Twitter / Yahoo / Microsoft etc. Under no circumstances will companies of this sort and value ever be allowed to crawl out from under control of the US Government.