14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has no nice things to say about the US authorities and the spying programs ran by the National Security Agency. Although he’s previously used about the same phrasing, the Facebook CEO said that the US “really blew it” with the surveillance programs.
“I think that these things are always a balance, in terms of doing the right things and also being clear and telling people about what you’re doing,” Zuck said during an interview for ABC.
“I think the government really blew it on this one. And I honestly think that they’re continuing to blow it in some ways and I hope that they become more transparent in that part of it,” he said.
Previously, the Facebook CEO also criticized president Obama for his stance on the matter. If you remember, Obama came out and said that American citizens should not be afraid, because the NSA’s programs do not concern any type of local data (actually, they do collect domestic data), making it obvious that no other country was safe from the agency's ever-seeing eye.
Zuck scoffed at the idea at the time, saying that the statement made things a lot harder for all US companies that actually have to deal with users from the entire world.
Over the past few months it has been obvious that the NSA revelations have already started affecting US-based companies that are now having issues in their dealings with foreign countries, especially China, one nation that has a huge tech market.
The cloud business is said to be particularly under threat following the Snowden scandal since many wonder who will still trust companies based in the United States under the given circumstances when the National Security Agency can easily gain access to the servers, with or without a warrant.