Snowden's email service, Lavabit, shuts down rather than comply with U.S. gov. orders.

[Luminous Animal]

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

http://boingboing.net/2013/08/08/lavabit-email-service-snowden.html

[snappyturtle]

1. The plot thickens....

[Hydra]

3. Pass me some of that :)

I can't wait to see what the apologists have to say about this. The 1st, 4th, 5th and 10th amendments are getting murdered.

[hobbit709]

6. They'll find some way to twist it around that it's good for us.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. I can start the list

We all know it by heart...you Obama hater, you...



It is getting kafkaesque to be honest

[bemildred]

12. Nah, this is Orwell, Kafka is when they don't bother to lie to you any more. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. How about Phillip K. dick?

We even have a dept of pre-crime.

(Showing our reading habits)

[bemildred]

14. Oh yeah, that works, and Dick gets all the modern PR bullshit aspects of it too.

Orwell died a bit too soon to get all the Technicolor(R) glory of it the way we do it now.

[bemildred]

15. And Brazil, this is soooooo Brazil. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Some of this is pure cyberpunk too

It is...odd...in some ways.

[bemildred]

20. Yeah, Snowden for sure, conjures up Gibson and Stephenson right away.

I was thinking about "Diamond Age" in relation to Snowden, and who can forget Hiro Protagonist?

[starroute]

24. I also get Babylon 5 vibes here and there

It's the creeping fascism part.

[bemildred]

26. And Starship Troopers, the best parody of all.

Or "Team America, World Police":

[beevul]

46. Nightwatch, ministry of truth...

Nightwatch, ministry of truth...



"Are you with us or against us?"

[Volaris]

60. and all of it, (combined with the idea of Blackwater as Law Enforcement For Hire),

smacks of Shadowrun (for those who played it back in the day)

Eric Prince thinks he's running a Lone Star outfit. The lunatic.

[Dragonfli]

50. They will likely be as pleased as I am that the Administration has stood firm in protecting the 3rd

amendment!

Best president ever!

I Love It when I wake up in the morning and I do not have to bunk a half dozen soldiers in my living room thanks to inspirational leadership.

No president could do better with what he has, even the professional leftist FDR could not protect the 18th amendment.
How could Obama be expected to save more than one at a time, or indeed, even save more than one or two overall? He is not a King but he will stand firm on the third and we can add that to the list of accomplishments.

I am glad we elected a constitutional scholar, such a man understands interpretations of certain words to make legal and constitutional all we now are forced to do because, 911.

Everything changed since then - with liberty there can be no safety, and with safety there can be no liberty.
He understands this and he always protects us.

[BlueCheese]

2. The reference to the First Amendment is interesting.

My guess is he received one of those demands that he turn over a user's email while also prohibiting him from talking about it.

Is it constitutional to prevent a citizen from repeating unsolicited information the government tells him or her?

[Hydra]

4. I don't believe all of these secrecy requirements are constitutional

But that doesn't seem to matter to the current Admin. They're doing it anyway.

[Luminous Animal]

5. Crazy. We can't know anything about a court order or a decision because it is criminal

for him to talk about it.

[backscatter712]

16. IOW, a National Security Letter.

Nothing says we live in a free country like a visit from government spooks, with orders to snoop through your stuff without an actual warrant from an actual court, plus an order not to talk about it, on pain of prison.

[midnight]

7. K&R

[KamaAina]

8. Wonder if Greenwald will get on this?

[Luminous Animal]

10. I found out about it through his twitter feed.

[Luminous Animal]

9. Lavabit is appealing to the Fourth Circuit and it will be expensive...

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/08/lavabit-email-shut-down-edward-snowden?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Opsahl (from the Electronic Frontier Foundation) 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.

You can donate here:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=ALPXnOUdpYOeWl96OtcBhIyiv1oizgYT4o98PfFphtWcybfQY3auWuqUJo8&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d92b37e35c82a7c965120dd5a9b6ad0e3

[millennialmax]

17. How Atlas Shrugged of Ladar Levison.

[MsPithy]

34. Have you read Atlas Shrugged?

Be honest. Even John Gault's 90 page radio address?

Because, I see no similarity at all.

[Angus86]

19. National Security Letter

As a librarian, there has been much talk in my profession in recent years about the seedier parts of the USA PATRIOT Act. What Lavabit LLC received is likely a National Security Letter, or NSL. An NSL is an executive subpoena that DOES NOT require prior judicial approval, not even in a secret court. One of the unique features of an NSL is the inherent "gag order" which prevents the recipient from revealing to anyone (except their lawyer or job supervisor) that they've received the request. Even worse, the "gag order" automatically applies to anyone told of the NSL by the recipient.

Before the USA PATRIOT Act, NSLs could only be used if the target of the investigation was suspected of being a "foreign spy" (which they claim Snowden is), however the Patriot Act removed that requirement.

There was a Library in Connecticut that received an NSL and successfully challenged the constitutionality of the "gag order," however it is still standard practice to include it in new NSLs.

Sadly, Mr. Levison will probably be charged with obstructing an investigation as the result of his actions.

[riderinthestorm]

22. Welcome to DU and thanks for this post. Great info... nt

[ConcernedCanuk]

30. pssst . . . check profiles - Angus86 has been here 2 years . . .

.
.
.

just sayin'

CC

[Angus86]

31. I tend to be a wallflower

I like to read discussions, but rarely comment. I choose to speak up only when I feel I have some insight into the discussion.

That being said, it's great to be here!

[ConcernedCanuk]

35. That's fine, I get in moods where I just read without posting.

.
.
.

There is a wealth of information here, other groups and so on

Not only that, I save a lot of net usage charges by just checking the news items here on DU as most news sites gobble up my bandwidth with adds and pop ups for a few paragraphs of text.

My comment was meant to mention that just because a member has a low post count,

doesn't mean that they are a "newbie".

Welcome anyhoo - it's safer on the wall

than in many of the forums.

I suspect you know that.



CC

[Angus86]

37. Indeed, thank you sir.

[PoliticAverse]

57. "I choose to speak up only when I feel I have some insight into the discussion."

An attitude like that could destroy the Internet as we know it...

[Vinnie From Indy]

49. I wonder if it would be possible to claim that the general public were your

"job supervisors" and release information.

[Mojorabbit]

21. It just gets worse every day. nt

[blackspade]

23. The authoritarian gods are smiling

The rest of us? not so much....

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

25. Too bad more companies don't have backbones

All they need to do is just say no.

Let them try to lock everybody up!

[bvar22]

51. I am Spartacus.

I am Manning

I am Snowden.

I am Trayvon.

I am OWS.

[starroute]

27. Here's a link to a message board discussing the situation

It starts yesterday when all people knew was that they couldn't access their mailboxes or get any explanation of why the system was down. Then, late last night, somebody who'd just joined the board suggested "has anybody considered that if edward snowden did use lavabit then the Gouvernment is maybe interested in his mails which he wrote and sended to Glenn Greenwald. Maybe they seized the server and waved with a national security letter. just a thought !"

And then a few hours later, the announcement came that the service was being shut down. Up to that point, not even an employee who was posting to apologize to everyone had any clue as to what it was about.

Strange stuff.

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=66968

[Luminous Animal]

29. Thank you.

[MannyGoldstein]

28. "Make No Mistake... only by destroying the Constitution can we strengthen the Constitution...

just like strengthening Social Security... right Jamie and Lloyd?"

[RC]

38. First the village, then the Constitution.

What's next?

[Shankapotomus]

32. Well, that was the wrong way to go about it

They didn't even inform their web mail users in advance so they could transfer their contacts.

[cantbeserious]

33. I Physically Live In The US - However, I No Longer Live In America - America Is Dead

eom

[DeSwiss]

36. FTA - K&R n/t

[Catherina]

39. Another one, Silent Circle just preemptively shut down

Silent Circle Preemptively Shuts Down Encrypted Email Service To Prevent NSA Spying

"We knew USG would come after us”. That’s why Silent Circle CEO Michael Janke tells TechCrunch his company shut down its Silent Mail encrypted email service. It hadn’t been told to provide data to the government, but after Lavabit shut down today rather than be “complicit” with NSA spying, Silent Circle told customers it has killed off Silent Mail rather than risk their privacy.

The Silent Circle blog posts explains “We see the writing the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now.” It’s especially damning considering Silent Circle’s co-founder and president is Phil Zimmermann, the inventor of widely-used email encryption program Pretty Good Privacy.

Silent Circle reportedly had revenue increase 400% month-over-month in July after corporate enterprise customers switched to its services in hopes of avoiding surveillance. The company giddily told Forbes it planned to nearly double staff and significantly increase revenue this year in part thanks to the NSA’s practices coming to light. In light of those comments, today’s news about shutting down Silent Mail seems a bit sobering.

Silent CircleSilent Circle’s other secure services including Silent Phone and Silent Text will continue to operate as they do all the encryption on the client side within users’ devices. But it explained that “Email that uses standard Internet protocols cannot have the same security guarantees that real-time communications has.” With too many opportunities for information and metadata leaks in the SMTP, POP3, and IMAP email protocols, the company believes there was no way to live up to its promise of total privacy.

In a statement to TechCrunch about whether the shut down was only because Silent Circle felt email was insecure, CEO Michael Janke tells us

“It goes deeper than that. There are some very high profile people on Silent Circle- and I mean very targeted people- as well as heads of state, human rights groups, reporters, special operations units from many countries. We wanted to be proactive because we knew USG would come after us due to the sheer amount of people who use us- let alone the “highly targeted high profile people”. They are completely secure and clean on Silent Phone, Silent Text and Silent Eyes, but email is broken because govt can force us to turn over what we have. So to protect everyone and to drive them to use the other three peer to peer products- we made the decision to do this before men on [SIC] suits show up. Now- they are completely shut down- nothing they can get from us or try and force from us- we literally have nothing anywhere.”

...

http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/08/silent-circle-preemptively-shuts-down-encrypted-email-service-to-prevent-nsa-spying/

Their message to customers:

To Our Customers

We designed our phone, video, and text services (Silent Phone and Silent Text) to be completely end-to-end secure with all cryptography done on the clients and our exposure to your data to be nil. The reasons are obvious — the less of your information we have, the better it is for you and for us.

Silent Mail has thus always been something of a quandary for us. Email that uses standard Internet protocols cannot have the same security guarantees that real-time communications has. There are far too many leaks of information and metadata intrinsically in the email protocols themselves. Email as we know it with SMTP, POP3, and IMAP cannot be secure.

And yet, many people wanted it. Silent Mail has similar security guarantees to other secure email systems, and with full disclosure, we thought it would be valuable.

However, we have reconsidered this position. We’ve been thinking about this for some time, whether it was a good idea at all. 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.

We’ve been debating this for weeks, and had changes planned starting next Monday. We’d considered phasing the service out, continuing service for existing customers, and a variety of other things up until today. It is always better to be safe than sorry, and with your safety we decided that the worst decision is always no decision.

...

http://silentcircle.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/to-our-customers/

[Luminous Animal]

40. Good to see they are keeping open with their other secure services.

[DontTreadOnMe]

61. "we knew USG would come after us" -- but they have NOT

we have a large group of people living in total paranoia.

You can get the list of people right here on DU, just make a list of their screen names.

No need for the NSA, it's all right here in plain daylight.

It's just like the far right was scared of Obama coming to get their guns... the paranoid ultra, "way deep with back against the wall" left has gone off the deep end with tornadoes filled with sharks.

[gulliver]

41. Who says Snowden used it?

How do we know this? Why do we know this if it's such a great service? Maybe this guy just wants some publicity. I don't see why encrypting email is considered difficult.

[Luminous Animal]

42. See post #39 for the difficulty of 100% encrypted email...

And as for Snowden...

Sergei Nikitin, the head of Amnesty International’s Moscow office, and Vladimir Lukin, the Kremlin-appointed human rights ombudsman, are among those who confirmed to Russian news agencies that they would accept the invitation to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, reportedly sent Thursday from an email address supposedly belonging to Snowden.

The note, which could not be verified, requested the attendance of a slew of well-known rights workers and lawyers “for a brief statement and discussion regarding the next steps forward in my situation,” according to a copy of the invitation posted Lokshina.

It was sent from the email address “[e-mail],” according to Lokshina’s post, and signed “Edward Joseph Snowden.”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/130712/edward-snowden-meeting-moscow-airport

[arely staircase]

43. he should be aloud to speek nt

[devils chaplain]

44. K&R. Thank you for your courage, Lavabit and Mr. Levison. n/t

[AppleBottom]

45. Dear God, what have we become. nt.

[Shankapotomus]

47. On second thought,

knowing what he knew about internet surveillance and the NSA, why would Snowden communicate via email over the internet? The whole thing sounds ludicrous.

I also am suspicious of the abrupt shutdown of Lavabit where users are unable to access their accounts and can't contact anyone.

How do we know Lavabit itself wasn't part of the NSA program?

[Amonester]

48. We know nothing.

Everything is broken up and dances.

Disinformation, manipulation for attention greed or necessity.

Spin, spin, spin, send the cash here...

Oath to the Constitution for show...

[Progressive dog]

52. Silent circle gone too

With good reason?

The company, with U.S. headquarters in Maryland, said it had not received subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else from any government, and “this is why we are acting now.”

[WillyT]

53. K & R !!!

[Douglas Carpenter]

54. knr

[Enthusiast]

55. One cannot keep secrets from the US government!

It just isn't right!

[Luminous Animal]

56. The U.S. Government Killed Three Secure Email Services This Week

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-us-government-killed-three-secure-email-services-this-week#ixzz2bVYAWIiK

What's worrisome is that we're beginning to see the chilling effects of government surveillance that we've all been worried about for some time now. First it was with whistleblowers—following aggressive pursuit and prosecution of Bradley Manning and others, as well as Edward Snowden's current stint in political purgatory, how many potential whistleblowers will now think twice?

But now we're talking about private, legitimate companies shutting down their services, not because of government regulation or anything open to debate or public discourse, but because of government intrusion and secret strong arming backed by the word of secret courts.

[SoapBox]

62. So the government physically shut them down?

Oh! No they didn't.

These paranoid companies were hiding some kind of funky shit!?! Terrorist mails? Traitor mails? Or just men cheating on their wives.

If one shuts down their company, just to "take a stand", they weren't much of a company.

Next!

[jmowreader]

58. I realize this has become Snowden Underground, but...

...it seems to me that an email service like Lavabit or Silent Circle, one which offers claims of near-absolute security, would be a perfect conduit to facilitate terrorism, distribution of child pornography, and large-scale illicit-drug transactions. (Go to the Lavabit wikipedia page and you will learn that [e-mail] was nailed in June for alleged possession of child porn. Lavabit cooperated in that investigation, but you know what they say about smoke...)

Snowden? The horse is not only out of the barn on that one but he's half a mile down the road.

[blkmusclmachine]

59. .

.

[woo me with science]

63. K&R

[woo me with science]

64. kick