> As Farrell implies, the problem is that European governments engage in the exact same hypocrisy, just with fewer intelligence capabilities. The substantive effect of these revelations in France or Mexico to date have been surprisingly muted. So far, the biggest policy blowback has been Rousseff's cancelling of the state visit to the United States.

The bigger their own surveillance system, the less they will squawk. However, as you get to smaller nations, some of them conclude that the only way to win is to not play the game, and provide a secure communications environment for their people and businesses.