[henryfjordan]

You misunderstand a bit. If I were Coca-cola, I would trust that the NSA would never ever reveal my secret recipe. But at the same time I wouldn't trust them not to read the private messages of my employees for other juicy stuff.

America cares more about corporate rights than human rights.

[ptx]

That's nice for the American company, but why should companies and individuals in the rest of the world trust this American private/public conglomeration with their data? Foreigners have no rights under American law, from what I gather.

[muratsu]

Public distrust of American companies doesn't serve the USA when top tech companies have approximately half their revenue generated outside the USA.

[henryfjordan]

They shouldn't? I don't think I ever made that point. I was only speaking to the motivations of each Government. If I don't trust my own gov't to respect my private data, why would I tell anyone else to trust them?

Foreigners have basically all the same rights as citizens under US law. Maybe you're thinking of the NSA's mandate to only collect foreign-bound US internet traffic, not domestic?

[ptx]

Ah. Reading more carefully, I see now that you were saying that as an American it might be better to trust American companies than Chinese ones. Sure, quite probably.

All I'm saying, and I guess this doesn't contradict what you were saying, is that for the rest of the world it makes no difference if we choose American or Chinese equipment since we'll be spied on either way.

[SkyMarshal]

Foreigners living/operating in the US have almost all the rights US citizens do, besides citizen-only things like voting or running for office.