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
Lets see if that motivates others in the industry to follow suit.-40hz (August 08, 2013, 09:36 PM)
I wouldn't be too worried about "the industry." Have you noticed how all the people running around, appearing on news shows, and holding press conferences just keep repeating the same things over and over even though nobody believes them? It's not because they think they're fooling anyone. They're just so out of touch with the rest of the world they literally don't know how to do anything else.-Vurbal (August 08, 2013, 10:20 PM)
What matters is that the masses have realized the emperor has no clothes and suddenly the spell is broken. A month ago people were scared not to go along with the government. Now they're just scared of the government. And now they're looking back at what we've been telling them for years and suddenly it makes sense. At the end of the day that's all people are looking for. Somebody to fill in the blanks they can't fill in for themselves.
No matter how charming or convincing or threatening you are sooner or later you have to deliver. Almost everyone can tell the difference between the real thing and a fake. Some people just take a lot longer than others.-Vurbal (August 08, 2013, 10:20 PM)
I hope you're right. The "fringe lunatics" have been screaming at the tops of their lungs about these issues for decades. There is literature on related topics going back to the 1910's & 1920's.What we have that they didn't is the Internet. It's not that the technology is somehow special. It's just that the propaganda only works to the extent that censorship allows it. Humans, as irrational as we are as a species have this bizarre ability to create a sort of social supercomputer that is ultimately greater than any of us separately.-Renegade (August 08, 2013, 10:42 PM)
Damn damn damn damn >:( >:( >:( >:(
Lavabit was MY email provider. I used it because they were a small, relatively unknown email provider (read: smaller target), they used Linux servers (gotta support the flock :) ), but more importantly, they kept your email encrypted, with no master key. Only YOU could read your email. Ever.-Edvard (August 08, 2013, 11:24 PM)
So, this is what it comes down to. Submit to being spied upon at whim or else no goodies for you.It's a basic lesson people need to learn and pass on to future generations (who will eventually forget it just like every other generation). Liberty and democracy are not something that can be bestowed, bequeathed, or inherited. They must be taken - not necessarily by force but always by force of will, and they must be maintained the same way.
This is no longer a matter of whether it's not the United States I and millions of others used to know. This is no longer the United States of America as defined by it's founding documents, period.
Lets see if that motivates others in the industry to follow suit.-40hz (August 08, 2013, 09:36 PM)
another secure email provider, Silent Circle, chose to announce its own plans to close down its secure email service hours later. Silent Circle isn't facing the same hidden court orders/government demands, but it recognized that it would likely come some day soon -- and thus it was better to shut down ahead of time, before the government forced it to make the same decision.
Revolution does not have to mean war. But it always means standing up to the government and saying no.
In the words of Thomas Jefferson, "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."-Vurbal (August 08, 2013, 11:39 PM)
Revolution does not have to mean war. But it always means standing up to the government and saying no.
In the words of Thomas Jefferson, "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."-Vurbal (August 08, 2013, 11:39 PM)
Revolution does not have to mean war. But it always means standing up to the government and saying no.
In the words of Thomas Jefferson, "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."-Vurbal (August 08, 2013, 11:39 PM)
And I add a warning from the past:-wraith808 (August 09, 2013, 10:38 AM)
The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.
This is no longer a matter of whether it's not the United States I and millions of others used to know. This is no longer the United States of America as defined by it's founding documents, period.-Edvard (August 08, 2013, 11:24 PM)
However, this:The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.
He couldn't have been more wrong. The question then is who and why?-Renegade (August 09, 2013, 11:30 AM)
Sigh... Be careful what you wish for... You just may get it... :'(-Renegade (August 09, 2013, 10:32 AM)
However, this:The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.
He couldn't have been more wrong. The question then is who and why?-Renegade (August 09, 2013, 11:30 AM)
I don't think he was wrong. If anything, he was prescient.
Because the version of the United States we're living in right now is a country nobody knows.
Us included.-40hz (August 09, 2013, 11:34 AM)
This is no longer a matter of whether it's not the United States I and millions of others used to know. This is no longer the United States of America as defined by it's founding documents, period.-Edvard (August 08, 2013, 11:24 PM)
Yes. Isn't it amazing that fewer than 1 in 100 Americans realizes that the U.S. government has been overthrown - not by the communists, or Al Qaeda, or anyone else we've been repeatedly warned about - but by some self-proclaimed "patriots" with the U.S. government itself.
There's a term for what's happened in the United States. But say it softly. Because coup d'état is a foreign term for something that's only supposed to happen in foreign places. Not here.
:(-40hz (August 09, 2013, 11:32 AM)
Naw, I really want to get the terminology straight - the Govt hasn't been overthrown.
The Govt has succumbed to systemic abuses of power.-TaoPhoenix (August 09, 2013, 02:52 PM)
The Govt has succumbed to systemic abuses of power.-TaoPhoenix (August 09, 2013, 02:52 PM)
Lavabit was MY email provider. I used it because they were a small, relatively unknown email provider (read: smaller target), they used Linux servers (gotta support the flock :) ), but more importantly, they kept your email encrypted, with no master key. Only YOU could read your email. Ever.-Edvard (August 08, 2013, 11:24 PM)
Not strictly true - unless all you senders and recipients also use the same service and you can guarantee end to end encryption
...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.An odd thing to say. Why say it? What he recommends was patently obvious from the moment the Guardian published the Snowden leaks. And it's not necessarily confined to just those with physical ties to the United States, either.-wraith808 (August 08, 2013, 06:27 PM)
it's not necessarily confined to just those with physical ties to the United States, either.-IainB (August 10, 2013, 10:18 AM)
Because with everything that's been happening lately, there is no longer any doubt that it is they who are the criminals. This government has firmly and forever overstepped the bounds of the Constitution it claims to derive it's existence from.-Edvard (August 09, 2013, 04:32 PM)
I really try not to be political, and this isn't a rant against the Left or Right or anyone else, it is just the facts as they are manifest. I mean, I'm with Wraith, it shouldn't have to be like this. The simple choice of email provider shouldn't be a political action. But now it is, and we are the worse off for it.-Edvard (August 09, 2013, 04:32 PM)
Feds Threaten To Arrest Lavabit Founder For Shutting Down His Service
from the either-you-help-us-spy-on-people-or-you're-a-criminal dept
The saga of Lavabit founder Ladar Levison is getting even more ridiculous, as he explains that the government has threatened him with criminal charges for his decision to shut down the business, rather than agree to some mysterious court order. The feds are apparently arguing that the act of shutting down the business, itself, was a violation of the order:
P.S. If anyone knows of a good email service provider with a similar policy, please let me know.-Edvard (August 08, 2013, 11:24 PM)
short of extended incarceration
Who Will Take The Privacy Seppuku Pledge?
from the after-you dept
When Techdirt wrote recently about yet another secure email provider opting to close down its service rather than acquiesce in some future US government demand to spy on its users, we noted that Cryptocloud has promised something similar for a while -- what it terms "corporate seppuku":
Give me liberty, or give me death.
Whoever made this one must know Renegade: ;D
(see attachment in previous post (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=35724.msg334885#msg334885))
;)-40hz (August 18, 2013, 11:26 AM)
Because with everything that's been happening lately, there is no longer any doubt that it is they who are the criminals. This government has firmly and forever overstepped the bounds of the Constitution it claims to derive it's existence from.-Edvard (August 09, 2013, 04:32 PM)
I really hope not "forever". :(-Renegade (August 10, 2013, 10:30 PM)
P.S. If anyone knows of a good email service provider with a similar policy, please let me know.riseup.net-Edvard (August 08, 2013, 11:24 PM)-Attronarch (August 17, 2013, 02:39 AM)
Whoever made this one must know Renegade: ;D
...
;)-40hz (August 18, 2013, 11:26 AM)
..."I have been running around in my newsroom, screaming about this ... for years," says Julia Angwin, who covers computer security and privacy at The Wall Street Journal. "There's so much evidence now that journalists are being targeted, that our communications are vulnerable and, mostly, that our sources are being put in jail."
...It's in this context that The New York Times decided to outsource its email to Google. This summer, the paper moved all of its reporters onto corporate Gmail accounts. Before the switch, Times emails were stored on servers it owned; now those messages are in Google's digital filing cabinet.
...Fred Cate, the director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, says a large email service provider like Google may very well offer better security. Still, Cate says, when it comes to mounting a legal defense against a leak investigation, the Times is making itself vulnerable.
..."There will be a gap. There is no question that there's going to be a gap," Cate says. "Because previously you would have had to serve that piece of paper on The New York Times."
Now, an investigator would serve Google. And if the request comes with a gag order, the Times might never know.
So, knowing the certified/documented risks - post Snowden - under what circumstances would it make sense for The Wall Street Journal to outsource their email to Gmail?
...Hmm...tricky question... :tellme:-IainB (August 19, 2013, 08:34 AM)
Just figure out how much business they'll lose when they completely sell out,-Renegade (August 19, 2013, 08:42 AM)
It appears that Levison – who would not confirm this – has received a national security letter (NSL), a legal attempt to force him to hand over any and all data his company has so that the US authorities can track Snowden and anyone he communicated with. The fact that he closed the service rather than comply may well have opened him up to other legal challenges – about which he also can not comment.
Many of us managed for years without email...
Simple solution:
* Toss out your PC
* Go and buy a quill
Happy days are here again. ;)-esoito (August 28, 2013, 11:27 PM)
Just started reading a new book, (fiction), in which a method was stated to avoid having your email read, without having to encrypt it, (they used simple word code in the book).
Both parties use the same email account and only write drafts, ie.
Person A writes a draft and saves it.
Person B reads, deletes, and writes a new one.
Person A reads, deletes, etc, etc.
No email is actually sent between servers.
Interesting idea, don't know how feasible it would be, (barring unauthorised remote access to the email server).-4wd (August 29, 2013, 12:49 AM)