m********a
发帖数: 1041 | 1 http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/08/lavabit-snowden/
A pro-privacy email service long used by NSA leaker Edward Snowden abruptly
shut down today, blaming a secret U.S. court battle it has been fighting for
six weeks — one that it seems to be losing so far.
“I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in
crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly 10 years of hard
work by shutting down Lavabit,” owner Ladar Levison wrote in a statement.
“After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations.”
Based in Texas, Lavabit attracted attention last month when NSA leaker
Edward Snowden used an email account with the service to invite human rights
workers and lawyers to a press conference in the Moscow airport where he
was then confined. A PGP crypto key apparently registered by Snowden with a
Lavabit address suggests he’s favored the service since January 2010 —
well before he became the most important whistleblower in a generation.
Levison posted this message today announcing the shutdown.
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
Defending the constitution is expensive! Help us by donating to the Lavabit
Legal Defense Fund here.
Reading between the lines, it’s reasonable to assume Levison has been
fighting either a National Security Letter seeking customer information —
which comes by default with a gag order — or a full-blown search or
eavesdropping warrant.
Court records show that, in June, Lavabit complied with a routine search
warrant targeting a child pornography suspect in a federal case in Maryland.
That suggests that Levison isn’t a privacy absolutist. Whatever compelled
him to shut down now must have been exceptional.
A voicemail to Lavabit went unreturned today.
Update 19:45: Lavabit has 350,000 users who aren’t Edward Snowden, and some
are decidedly unhappy with Levison’s decision, judging by a flood of angry
comments posted to Lavabit’s Facebook page this afternoon.
“Too bad that I payed some years in advance to keep up the good work that
now turns out to be terminated without any warning,” wrote one user. “I
relied on this service which is basic for my private as professional online
communication and have no idea how to migrate mails and recover mails being
sent that never reached me in the past 18 hours.”
“I have my Steam account and EVERYTHING on Lavabit,” wrote another. “
Please have the servers running so that we can migrate our services.”
“How am I supposed to migrate?” a third user added. “Some services
require a confirmation sent to the old email address to be able to switch. I
can’t believe this. I just switched to Lavabit only a couple of weeks ago
to get away from Hotmail snooping my shit.”
A minority of commenters were more supportive. “Holy shit, you guys are
crying over your Steam accounts,” wrote one. “Just change your email to
something else. Lavabit either had to roll over for the government,
compromising our privacy, or shut down service. Be happy Ladar shut it down
instead of rolling over.” | m********a
发帖数: 1041 | 2 本來不知道有這種更保護隱私的e-mail服務呢! 等它重開要來研究一下嚕! | l******g
发帖数: 6771 | 3 做梦，政府肯定要掐死
【在 m********a 的大作中提到】
: 本來不知道有這種更保護隱私的e-mail服務呢! 等它重開要來研究一下嚕!
| w***n
发帖数: 2474 | 4 “想想美國還真是不錯”, 还有這種保護隱私的e-mail服務呢!
小声问：即然这么好，那为吗要把它掐死呢？ 为了民猪？ 为了猪油？ |
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