Fighting surveillance can be good for business

The Snowden disclosures have been bad news for many US tech companies. As foreign customers seek to protect themselves and their data from the NSA, the losses to US companies may run into the billions. In particular, the cloud computing sector and ad supported companies whose business models depend upon data collection are most at risk.

It doesn't have to be this way. The Snowden stories don't have to be bad news. A handful of US tech companies have realized that privacy can be a competitive advantage, that building secure products designed to resist surveillance and government coercion can be good for business. For such companies, the combination of paranoid engineering and a brave legal team have enabled them to offer products that protect user data from many threats, including those hand-delivered by men and women in dark suits.