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Comment by nickfromseattle | Hacker News Reader

>why can't they similarly disagree with software import restrictions?

The argument for import restrictions is giving up control to foreign governments.

For example, Europe is in a very rough spot because their countries run on software built by US companies, subject to the whims of US law enforcement.

The biggest threat being 3 letter agencies. The CIA does a lot of spying on behalf of US corporations to drive US corporate interests. [0]

The US army banned Tik Tok from service member phones because of the risk of leaking data on troop movement, sensitive communication on the device outside of Tik Tok, etc [1]

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/national-...

[1] https://www.wired.com/story/army-bans-tiktok-cloud-hopper-em...

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> The CIA does a lot of spying on behalf of US corporations to drive US corporate interests.

Luckily Europe doesn't do any spying.

https://thecorrespondent.com/6257/how-european-spy-technolog...

This is absolutely true, and I hope my OP didn't infer they didn't.

The critical difference is US companies own Europe's communication infrastructure (Windows, Office 365, GSuite, Azure, AWS, Slack, etc), and not the other way around.

Sure.

Problem is, the US government does not own US companies.

After the Snowden leaks, for example, Google did a lot of hardening to its servers i.e. ensure all of its internal traffic is encrypted.

If you have evidence that Microsoft, Amazon and Google are totally willing to forgo the security and privacy interests of their customers in favor of pleasing the US Government, please, present some evidence for it. I'm eager to read it.

First case off the top of my head is Microsoft vs. US [0]

Second are National Security Letters [1]

Lavabit, a secure email provider used by Snowden was allegedly sent a NSL [2]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Corp._v._United_Stat...

[1] https://www.eff.org/issues/national-security-letters/faq

[2] https://www.fastcompany.com/2682825/lavabit-snowden-s-allege...

Literally none of those links prove what I ask.

The first is Microsoft opposing an effort by the US government to force it to hand over information stored on servers physically outside the US. Which proves my point.

The second is an FAQ by the EFF about National Security Letters. These are times when the government covertly forces American companies to hand over information. Which is stupid. But it has nothing to do with the fact that US companies control certain parts of IT infrastructure in Europe. You don't think Siemens and DeutcheTelekom turn over information to the German government?

The third one is a totally unrelated story about Edward Snowden's e-mail service. Not sure what that has to do with anything. What company would want to host his email? He's a walking target for state adversaries.

So again, if you have links that prove your point, please post them -- but these do not even come close.

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