US cloud computing industry faces US$35 billion PRISM fallout

A new report by a non-aligned United States think tank warns the American cloud computing industry could take a major earnings hit, thanks to former NSA employee Edward Snowden’s revelations of indiscriminate government mass surveillance.

In the report [PDF], the Information Technology and Innovation foundation (ITIF) said if non-American companies decided the risks of storing data with US firms outweighed the benfits, the collection of electronic data from third-paties “will likely have immediate and lasting impact on the competitiveness on the US cloud computing industry”.