Spying Fallout Bad News For Big Names

I wonder how many Facebook accounts have been closed since the revelation that not only was the information on the social media site being used to keep tabs on citizens worldwide, but that Facebook were actively handing the information to the American Government.
Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube and Skype were among the nine US companies linked to the secret PRISM spying scheme, which enabled government officials to mine information about individual users directly from their data centres which must threaten their very existence.
All the companies named in the documents denied knowledge of PRISM however reports have emerged that Facebook and Google helped make it easier for the government to access information on its servers by setting up digital 'safe
rooms' and 'secure portals' to allow US officials to automatically retrieve documents.
The latest offering from Microsoft, the X-Box One, with it's 'always-on' tracking via a Kinect "eye," beaming info back to some Microsoft cloud center which, as we now know, is tapped by the government and is sure to have an effect on sales.
The fall out also should have serious implications for the US Government with Angela Merkel reportedly seething that Germany was the most spied on country and the EU describing the gathering of data on EU citizens 'unacceptable',
'illegal' and 'a very serious violation' and is sure to bring in the much vaunted data-protection act that has been on the table for 18 months but was held back as the US companies were trusted with the data they received from the citizens of the EU.
The fall out for all involved should be massive, a sea-change moment when the likes of Facebook, Google and Microsoft and the digital companies that have dominated over the past decade find themselves replaced with more trustworthy rivals.
With the Guardian hinting at even more revelations to come, it spells a disastrous legacy for Obama, the man who promised Hope but will be remembered for overseeing the largest surveillance program of US and non-US citizens in history.