I would love to see the US try to set up shop in the EU in order to spy on its citizens. Now that would be an entertaining international incident.
A US company not being able to buy a EU company is an interesting side effect that may promote diversity and innovation. Have you heard of speciation?
Also everything can be overcome however it would make it considerably more difficult for the US to conduct mass surveillance on EU citizens.
You don't have to hope for it. It already happens.
Companies spy on each other sometimes with the help of intelligence services[1]. When CN or RU or the US or DE, etc. set up shop, they don't officially announce it. And if the EU decided to embargo US services, there would be more incentive to do this kind of espionage. But it's all moot. Most, if not all secret intelligence services share at least some data with each other. It's to each other's benefit. It makes each other's jobs easier and it helps them circumvent laws technically forbidding them from directly spying on their own citizens.
The US does not really care to surveil EU citizens, so much as the EU prefers the US do their dirty work for them (and vice versa). That's separate from intelligence gathering and industrial espionage but they all have these mutual understandings.
> I would love to see the US try to set up shop in the EU in order to spy on its citizens.
I think that the usual practice with foreign intelligence services setting up shop in target countries is to avoid being seen.
OTOH, if you don't think an agency specifically chartered to gather foreign signals intelligence which is recently the subject of controversy for allegedly exceeding its mandate by its conduct of secret domestic signals intelligence gathering is somehow timid about doing the thing it is specifically chartered to do, I'd be interested in hearing why.
Ok lets assume you're right and the US manages to splice into fiber optic cables in the country they target and for some absurd reason no human being ever checks the fiber optic cables which are easily accessible over land how would they send all that data back for processing?
Or if they do it locally how the hell do they get all that equipment in without being noticed?
When you're doing surveillance in a foreign country you can't be extravagant you have to choose your targets carefully.
I'm against mass surveillance for the hell of it I know there will always be a certain degree of surveillance i just want them out of average peoples lives they have no business being there.
> Ok lets assume you're right and the US manages to splice into fiber optic cables in the country they target
I don't recall ever saying anything about the US managing to splice into fiber optic cables, or any other particular mechanism of gathering signals intelligence.
