Pat Pilcher: The Upside of Prism  Edward Snowden, who worked as
a contract employee at the National Security Agency. Photo / AP
With the Prism scandal rapidly reaching media over-saturation,
big names in IT are running for cover as the ripples from Prism
threaten to become tsunamis that could engulf and irreparably
tarnish their brands.  Over the years we've all come to trust
the big players with an incredible amount of information.
Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple all hold a massive amount
of information including emails, documents and instant messages
or even photos. In light of the recent disclosure that the US
government gained access to much of this data via Prism, the big
question is can the trust ever be regained and where to from
here?  Nearly all of the companies involved have strenuously
denied giving NSA access to their customer's data, but denials
aside, the damage to their brands could lead to a massive sea
change in the way people see and use the net.  Over the last few
years we've seen hu