The American technology industry is losing billions of dollars abroad because Edward Snowden leaked NSA documents in 2013, according to a report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation .
In 2013, when Snowden first began releasing NSA documents, ITIF speculated that U.S. firms could lose anywhere between $21.5 billion and $35 billion in the coming years, mainly due to lose of trust in foreign markets. ITIF’s most recent report states losses will go beyond the initial $35 billion prediction.
“The U.S. government’s failure to reform many of the NSA’s surveillance programs has damaged the competitiveness of the U.S. tech sector and cost it a portion of the global market share,” the report reads.
The leaked NSA documents not only placed government employees at risk, but also impacted large American corporations like Boeing.
“In December 2013, Boeing lost a contract to Saab AB to replace Brazil’s aging fighter jets due to concerns over NSA activities,” according to the report.
China has had one of the strongest responses to the release of NSA documents, tightening their already strict policies. China also opened an initiative called De-IOE, which “stands for IBM, Oracle and EMC— to convince its state-owned banks to stop buying from these U.S. tech giants.”
“When historians write about this period in U.S. history it could very well be that one of the themes will be how the United States lost its global technology leadership to other nations,” ITIF wrote.