Secure Private Email Providers Shut Down

[whell]

Two secure, private email providers based in the US have shut down in the past week. The first was the private email service of Eric Snowden - Lavabit. The second was a service provider who has no known connection to Mr. Snowden, but likely has other clients who are using the service outside of the watchful eye of the NSA.

Here are the comments from the owner of Lavabit:

"My Fellow Users,

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on—the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.

What’s going to happen now? We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company.

This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.

Sincerely,
Ladar Levison
Owner and Operator, Lavabit LLC"

Here are some additional comments from the CEO of Silent Circle, the other provider who shut down their secure email services:

"Today, another secure email provider, Lavabit, shut down their system lest they “be complicit in crimes against the American people.” We see the writing the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now. We have not received subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else by any government, and this is why we are acting now."

Such is now the state of electronic communications in the US. Such is now the state of the intrusive nature of government in the US. Those of you who might have personal documents in "cloud storage" for safe keeping might want to rethink that.

We're getting a bit closer to Amerika every day it seems.

[merrylander]

Funy that no one seems to object to private firms like Facebook, Twitter , Google etc collecting personal info and selling it, have been for years.

For example, after I have done a search on, oh say electric screwdivers, then when I log in here the ad bar at the top features electric screwdrivers for the next four of five days.

[whell]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Funy that no one seems to object to private firms like Facebook, Twitter , Google etc collecting personal info and selling it, have been for years.

For example, after I have done a search on, oh say electric screwdivers, then when I log in here the ad bar at the top features electric screwdrivers for the next four of five days.

I no longer use gmail or the chrome browser, but its hard to get away from using search engines. However, I think there's a pretty wide gulf between a search provider dropping a cookie into your browser that pops up ads for screwdrivers, and having the government vacuum up private communications. Don't you?

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by whell

However, I think there's a pretty wide gulf between a search provider dropping a cookie into your browser that pops up ads for screwdrivers, and having the government vacuum up private communications. Don't you?

Not really, at least not intellectually. Tracking is tracking.

Welcome to why smart people derided the Patriot Act at inception. We've done ALL of this since at least then, knee-jerk (and poor) leadership tied to invasions we never should have undertaken just made it plausibly acceptable.

Rubbish across the board.

[barbara]

The gov can have any of my communications they want. Got nothin to hide.

[finnbow]

If anybody here is sensitive about the tracking of their Internet searches, DuckDuckGo provides a search engine that does not track.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/fir...o-for-firefox/

[icenine]

Originally Posted by finnbow

If anybody here is sensitive about the tracking of their Internet searches, DuckDuckGo provides a search engine that does not track.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/fir...o-for-firefox/

That comes with default on the Linux version of Mint I use, which has Mozilla for the browser. I thought it was annoying at first but it is just as good as Google.

[icenine]

Originally Posted by whell

We're getting a bit closer to Amerika every day it seems.

So what Klown Kar candidate is going to bring America with a "C" back?
Paul?
Cruz?

[whell]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Not really, at least not intellectually. Tracking is tracking.

Welcome to why smart people derided the Patriot Act at inception. We've done ALL of this since at least then, knee-jerk (and poor) leadership tied to invasions we never should have undertaken just made it plausibly acceptable.

Rubbish across the board.

No, its not. Tracking is pushing specific content based on observed user preferences. What the gov't is doing is pulling in and conducting analysis on a broad range of personal communication. It is then selectively acting upon that data to pursue legal activity against citizens.

Couple this with bringing legal pressure on private individuals and businesses who have done nothing wrong. This is far beyond the initial intent of the Patriot Act.

[whell]

Originally Posted by icenine

So what Klown Kar candidate is going to bring America with a "C" back?
Paul?
Cruz?

It shouldn't be up to any future political candidate. The current occupant of the WH, and the current occupants of Congress are the responsible parties for "bringing America back."