Sen. Wyden: NSA Surveillance Hurting US Economy

Tech industries stand to lose billions over loss of trust

Revelations about the National Security Agency's monitoring of online communications have damaged the U.S. economy so badly that Americans should "be in the street with pitchforks," according to a senator leading the effort to reform federal surveillance laws.

Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, told a day-long conference at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, that U.S. companies trying to do business in the global technology and communications market are hurting because of the revelations that American Internet giants like Microsoft, Google and Facebook have been under court order to cooperate with the NSA to monitor Web traffic.

"If a foreign enemy was doing this much damage to the economy, people would be in the streets with pitchforks," Mr. Wyden said.

A recent report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonprofit, public policy think tank, estimated that the U.S. cloud computing industry alone stands to lose up to $35 billion over the next three years as a result of the revelations — and its impact on the reputation and customer relations of U.S. firms.