http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/19/microsoft_nsa_fallout/ By Jack Clark The Register 19 Jun 2014 Microsoft’s top lawyer says the fallout of the NSA spying scandal is “getting worse,” and carries grim implications for US tech companies. In a speech at the GigaOm Structure conference in San Francisco on Thursday, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith warned attendees that unless the US political establishment figures out how to rein in its spy agencies, there could be heavy repercussions for tech companies “What we’ve seen since last June is a double-digit decline in people’s trust in American tech companies in key places like Brussels and Berlin and Brasilia. This has put trust at risk,” Smith said. “The longer we wait or the less we do the worse the problem becomes,” he explained. “We are seeing other governments consider new procurement rules – procurement rules that could effectively freeze out US-based companies.” […]