NSA Gag Orders Cost U.S. Business a Fortune, Says Tech CEO

Customers want answers that he's forbidden to give

We've now moved beyond mere talk about how the National Security Agency's surveillance programs may hurt U.S. cloud providers, says Matthew Prince, the chief executive of CloudFlare. The companies are already feeling the pain.

CloudFlare, a Web site security firm and network provider with clients that run the gamut from WikiLeaks to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, is getting  50 to 100 calls per day from customers demanding more answers about the firm's involvement with the U.S. National Security Agency, Prince says.

But that's information the company can't give out, he explains, and the inability to say anything about government requests is seriously hurting his business.