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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLAVABIT Founder: How FBI & US Legal System Made Sure We Don't Have Right To Privacy In 1st Place
Secrets, lies and Snowden's email: why I was forced to shut down LavabitFor the first time, the founder of an encrypted email startup that was supposed to insure privacy for all reveals how the FBI and the US legal system made sure we don't have the right to much privacy in the first place
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My company, Lavabit, provided email services to 410,000 people including Edward Snowden, according to news reports and thrived by offering features specifically designed to protect the privacy and security of its customers. I had no choice but to consent to the installation of their device, which would hand the US government access to all of the messages to and from all of my customers as they travelled between their email accounts other providers on the Internet.
But that wasn't enough. The federal agents then claimed that their court order required me to surrender my company's private encryption keys, and I balked. What they said they needed were customer passwords which were sent securely so that they could access the plain-text versions of messages from customers using my company's encrypted storage feature. (The government would later claim they only made this demand because of my "noncompliance".)
Bothered by what the agents were saying, I informed them that I would first need to read the order they had just delivered and then consult with an attorney. The feds seemed surprised by my hesitation.
What ensued was a flurry of legal proceedings that would last 38 days, ending not only my startup but also destroying, bit by bit, the very principle upon which I founded it that we all have a right to personal privacy
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MORE:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/20/why-did-lavabit-shut-down-snowden-email
This needs to go right to the top!
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)As far as I am concerned, Ladar Levison is a HERO. He refused to compromise his company and ended up having to shut it down to significant personal loss.
The railroading he went through is a text book example of a justice system run amok.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)It is sickening that heroes need to fear what they need to fear, from the United States of America.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)to "we dismantle them if they don't submit to illegal search and seizure."
closeupready
(29,503 posts)What with all the security cameras on every fucking corner. And God knows where else, and where all that footage is being stored - that new Utah facility? Offshore? Who knows.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)The people the government views as terrorists are pretty much anyone that threatens the power of the politically and financially well-connected. It's becoming very clear that they could care less about catching criminals and devote their resources to maintaining power and control over the citizens.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)Meanwhile internationally, defense contractors profit NOT primarily from surveillance but rather from the manufacturing of bombs and other weapons/war-related paraphernalia. It is precisely the set of circumstances Eisenhower warned about.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)what he warned us about. Eisenhower was a good man.