Email Provider Lavabit Shut Down

[Guest]

 http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/08/lavabit-email-shut-down-edward-snowden

The email service reportedly used by surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden abruptly shut down on Thursday after its owner cryptically announced his refusal to become "complicit in crimes against the American people."

Lavabit, an email service that boasted of its security features and claimed 350,000 customers, is no more, apparently after rejecting a court order for cooperation with the US government to participate in surveillance on its customers. It is the first such company known to have shuttered rather than comply with government surveillance.

"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," founder Ladar Levison wrote on the company's website, reported by Xeni Jardin the popular news site Boing Boing.

Levison said government-imposed restrictions prevented him from explaining what exactly led to his company's crisis point.


"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," Levison wrote. "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."


Privacy advocates called the move unprecedented. "I am unaware of any situation in which a service provider chose to shut down rather than comply with a court order they felt violated the Constitution," said Kurt Opsahl, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Several technology companies that participate in the National Security Agency's surveillance dragnets have filed legal requests to lift the secrecy restrictions that prevent them from explaining to their customers precisely what it is that they provide to the powerful intelligence service – either wittingly or due to a court order. Yahoo has sued for the disclosure of some of those court orders.

The presiding judge of the secret court that issues such orders, known as the Fisa court, has indicated to the Justice Department that he expects declassification in the Yahoo case. The department agreed last week to a review that will last into September about the issues surrounding the release of that information.

There are few internet and telecommunications companies known to have refused compliance with the NSA for its bulk surveillance efforts, which the NSA and the Obama administration assert are vital to protect Americans. One of them is Qwest Communications, whose former CEO Joseph Nacchio – convicted of insider trading – alleged that the government rejected it for lucrative contracts after Qwest became a rare holdout for post-9/11 surveillance.

"Without the companies' participation," former NSA codebreaker William Binney recently told the Guardian, "it would reduce the collection capability of the NSA significantly."

Snowden was allegedly a Lavabit customer. A Lavabit email address believed to come from Snowden invited reporters to a press conference at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in mid-July.

While Levinson did not say much about the shuttering of his company – he notably did not refer to the NSA, for instance – he did say he intended to mount a legal challenge.

"We've already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals," Levinson wrote. "A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company."

He continued: "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."

Opsahl noted that the fact that Levinson was appealing a case before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals indicated the government had a court order for Lavabit's data.

"It's taking a very bold stand, one that I'm sure will have financial ramifications," Opsahl said.

"There should be more transparency around this. There's probably no harm to the national security of the United States to have it publicly revealed what are the legal issues here," Opsahl continued.

Representatives from the NSA, White House, Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

 

[Jewbacca]

As sad as it is as both a student of the law and an American citizen, this really should come as no surprise to anyone. Over the past year, I've researched the issue of secure email and various industry providers, and Lavabit was one of the first that I eliminated from my list of potential recommendations for secure email vendors. This was for one reason, and one reason only, and was due to the fact that Lavabit was a US based corporation. Since I discovered this, I've routinely preached on the need for not only offshore, non-US located web and email servers for those seeking a secure, private email provider, but also one that is physically domiciled and incorporated outside of the US, and if at all possible, outside of both the US and the European Union. The most ideal situation would involve a non-US, non-EU and non-NATO nation based service provider, but the list of such countries is very small indeed. In any event, instead of another lecture from the Wookie, why don't I allow Lavabit's founder and CEO speak to this issue personally. The image below is of the Lavabit home page as it appears this evening. This digital privacy pioneer, constitutional advocate and entrepreneur's poignant and heartfelt message is truly an indictment of the US government's lack of commitment to the framer's intentions, and in my view, removes any and all doubt that this is no longer the America my great-grandfather fought and died for.

 

[Heisenberg / HNB]

Well props to the owner of LB for standing his ground and not just handing over all the info and private conversations.

Serves as a great reminder for all of US, to clean out our email address(es) you use to conduct business with, from time to time.  And remember to empty your trash after you delete.  Of course, you can keep basic, harmless emails, or write contact info down somewhere to hang onto friends and vendor's contact info.  But once a transaction is complete, and all went well, its not a bad idea to delete and erase all of the correspondence, especially that containing your payment info, name, address, etc. 

 

[cpain4real]

Good suggestion H.  I forget to do that from time to time but need to become more aware.  Example, locking my phone with passcode and so forth just in case it ever gets stolen, etc.  But erasing and deleting emails is simple enough.