Major US Tech Companies Google, Microsoft and Facebook No Worse for Wear After NSA Leaks

Following the initial leaks against the NSA by Edward Snowden this past summer, there was speculation that what was being exposed would end up hurting the business of US-based tech companies overseas. It's easy to understand why - when it's discovered that a country has been literally spying on those in friendly countries, no one is going to forget about it that quickly.

But despite that, it seems that there's been no harm so far, and if anything, it's actually improved the business of some fortunate companies. Where Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon are concerned, the companies claim that there's been no visible reduction in overseas business. Interestingly enough, US-based companies specializing in encryption and other security products are the ones seeing the increase.

I must admit that I find it rather interesting that despite there being numerous security solutions available worldwide, companies are still sticking to doing business in the country where the NSA leaks are unwrapping. It's especially notable given the US has made it obvious that it's willing to go after those who try to hide themselves online - even going as far as to shut down the encrypted email service Lavabit in a rather upsetting move last month.

While tech companies are having their business remain the same or are seeing an increase in revenue, few of them are happy with the fact that their reputations are slowly being tarnished. Google in particular is in this camp, as it just last week in a court filing stated that news coverage was causing "substantial harm" to its reputation.

Unless you're on Google+, I'd imagine most people should be more worried about Facebook's goings-on with the NSA. Google might know an awful lot about us, but on Facebook, we actually tell it everything it needs to know. As has been highlighted a hundred times before, there's little privacy online, and there's really little you can do to vastly improve things, but it's definitely worth making an effort. Given the increased business that some security firms are seeing, there seem to be many who are now "getting it".