As part of some of the direct economic costs to U.S. businesses, American companies are reporting declining sales in foreign markets and lost business opportunities, especially as foreign companies use this as a …show more content…
New proposals being pushed by foreign governments are looking to implement data localization requirements or much stronger data protection laws could result in greater economic losses for the US in the long term. These proposals could also force changes to the architecture and design of the the entire global network, threatening free expression and privacy to a greater extent if they are implemented.
Loss of credibility for the U.S. Internet Freedom agenda, as well as damage to broader bilateral relations, threaten U.S. foreign policy interests. Revelations about the extent of NSA surveillance have already affected several critical interactions with nations such as Germany and Brazil in the past year. Deteriorating political relations further sour the prospects of any businesses wishing to move into American markets, and lowers the potential for good trade deals. The NSA has also done significant damage to internet security by weakening the key encryption standards, insertion of surveillance backdoors into widely-used hardware and software products, stockpiling rather than responsibly disclosing information about software security vulnerabilities, and a variety of offensive hacking operations undermining the