They can certainly make life difficult for Apple and its executives; see what happened to Phil Nacchio of Qwest when he pushed back against surveillance requests.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_25845407/unrepentant-j...

Is there any evidence for Nacchio's claims other than his say-so?

Our own 'tptacek has commented on this:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8021904

He's also changed his tune some over time. Now it's all about users rights and privacy, but way back when the big concern was that the FCC might drop a giant fine on them. Less about protecting customers, more about protecting the bottom line by not getting caught.

Post-Snowden, the burden of proof is on the government.

Putting pressure on individuals is the simplest, most logical and very effective option. So, yes, Cook getting charged with insider trading or tax evasion would fit right in.

They can absolutely fine them, and if Yahoo's experience is any indication, fines for this kind of stuff are beyond what billions will cover:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/09/15...

How can you hope to defeat stuff like this in court if you can't survive the fines building up while you're waiting to see the process through?

>You could argue that Apple has more power than many governments.

You underestimate the power of governments.

The judicial powers of 'contempt of court' are some of the most powerful IN government. I have no doubt they can force Apple.

I know of at least one instance where executives of a medical device company tried to ignore the FDA, and said executives got marched out the door in handcuffs. If the FDA can do that, I'm pretty sure the NSA can...

Fine them. Fine them more after fining them. Arrest executives. The powers of contempt of court are rather wide.

That would make SEC filings a disclosure of surveillance.

The can request any fine amount they want. The Yahoo fine schedule would have been billions within a couple months iirc because it included a doubling clause every few weeks that the order wasn't complied with.

It turns out you can fine people arbitrary amounts of money. There is no amount of money that Apple can have that the government can't think of a bigger number than.

As the nuclear option, the USG could simply force them to stop doing business in the US. That would effectively put them out of business and would never happen.

I am sure that people in other countries buy Apple products.

Yes but all of their designers, developers, etc, are all in the US. Note that all Apple stuff says, "Designed in California". If all of your non-manufacturing is shut down, the company is shut down. I think you failed to see this point.

You are right on both points. They do say that (I see now that my laptop says "designed by Apple in California") and yes, I did not imagine that all of their engineers are in the US.

I would still guess that they would try to move to another country rather than shutting down. I admit that it would be hard if not impossible.

Upvoted for humility, it is a rare trait :)

That is the problem. No one knows what they can do. The conpany will certainly have no recourse.