The National Security Agency’s (NSA) Internet surveillance could be putting American technology companies at risk of losing a lot of money.

Bloomberg reports that U.S. companies could lose up to $35 billion in revenue by 2016 due to spying abroad, according to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. The Washington-based policy research group also found that Internet freedom could suffer a setback due to the internet surveillance conducted by the NSA.

A senior fellow at the New America Foundation — another Washington policy group — said that “the potential fallout is pretty huge given how much our economy depends on the information economy for its growth.” Large companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) could also suffer from any ensuing setbacks.

The opinions contained in this column are solely those of the writer.

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