[SudoNick]

The threat is from government and collaborators. Some collaborators are probably lobbying to have government surveillance programs expanded because they think it will benefit their bottom line. Other collaborators may believe that privacy of citizens is of no or little importance and willingly cooperate. Companies with business models that debase privacy could be suspected of this. Then there are companies who genuinely may not want to cooperate at all and who may even care about privacy. Companies with a squeaky clean history on the privacy front.

Unfortunately, it is important that all collaborators be punished. Especially since the government is trying to expand its surveillance programs to include a wider range of companies, and per reports many companies are reluctant to sign up out of fear of public backlash. There needs to be that public backlash. There needs to be negative consequences for those companies that participate.

That being said, I'd like to clarify that I don't think all forms of cooperation with government investigations are inappropriate. Very narrow and specific requests in response to explicit subpoenas being an example of something I think must be tolerated. On the other hand, blanket requests and requests for data access that would enable government to independently explore the records of millions of American citizens is something that can't be tolerated. Efforts must be made to change such policies at the same time that efforts are made to penalize the companies that collaborate and make it possible.