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Email service used by Snowden shuts down, warns against using US-based companies

theguardian.com

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Re: Email service used by Snowden shuts down, warns against using US-based companies

#61

Post by dmix »

brador wrote: post #7
mtgx wrote: post #6

Snowden: "Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, and the rest of our internet titans must ask themselves why they aren't fighting for our interests the same way". Indeed, they must. Your move Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple.

You mean: Your move Larry, Mark, Steve, Merissa and Tim. In the end the base unit of society is still the human, no matter how many layers we place around them.

correction: > no matter how many [lawyers] we place around them

A CEO/Chairman hurting a public companies profit via protest against NSA would result in shareholder lawsuits. Another good example of the the legal constructs around corporatism and public stock markets hurting the inherent protectionism from abuse free markets offer society.

Corporatism often prevents large companies from acting morally, whether by being protected from real repercussions for acting maliciously via being a single legal entity (resulting in mass settlements not individual employee liability) or their legal obligations to only care about short-term profits (post-IPO), not long term gains or societal benefit.

Re: Email service used by Snowden shuts down, warns against using US-based companies

#62

Post by chernevik »

criley2 wrote: post #8
spodek wrote: post #5

"Can we call it a police state now?" I saw the question on Reddit after a different revelation last month. I feel like we're going to ask that question more and more. I can only hope more and more of us are inspired, as Snowden was by Levinson (Lavabit's CEO) and many of us have been by both of them, and we act to protect ourselves and constrain our governments from overreaching to where they can't help repeating the…

My reply on Reddit when I see people bring that up is simple: You insult people who have experienced a police state by calling what we are experiencing a police state. A police state has no distinction between legislation and executive. Our legislation is currently investigating the president for: * CIA coverup of the attack on our Benghazi consulate' * IRS targeting of political opposition They're planning on using…

"Can we call it a police state now?" is a question, and one that by its nature should be asked before the answer is "yes".

Re: Email service used by Snowden shuts down, warns against using US-based companies

#63

Post by MWil »

jedbrown wrote: post #53

CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, 1994) addresses real-time monitoring of the communications of a single person, by way of a warrant. Lavabit has complied with warrants in the past [1] without shutting down services. Real-time interception does not fundamentally break Lavabit's security model [2] of encrypting incoming email and never storing the user's password, which is required to use their…

Reading this is super interesting...ever heard of a Consent to Assume Online Identity Form?

Re: Email service used by Snowden shuts down, warns against using US-based companies

#64

Post by mcv »

coldcode wrote: post #2

Yet a "safe" email system is now gone. A better idea would be to move yourself and your encrypted email company to a country that will let you keep providing such a useful service (assuming there is one).

It's definitely becoming clear that the US stopped being a suitable country for companies interested in providing such services.

Re: Email service used by Snowden shuts down, warns against using US-based companies

#65

Post by mattlutze »

twoodfin wrote: post #37
nazgulnarsil wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're being pedantic. No knock, no warrant, no redress when they murder you or a loved one for your family = police state, plain and simple.

I hope pg is reading these comments and is pleased that hn has become one more of the innumerable discussion boards where calling the U.S. a "police state, plain and simple" has become part of the everyday discourse. Yuck. I know there has always been a strain of the paranoid (sometimes well-earned) in hacker culture, but presumably it wasn't what this site was built to highlight.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Email service used by Snowden shuts down, warns against using US-based companies

#66

Post by pearjuice »

mcv wrote: post #48
pearjuice wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sacrified his life? Please stop. He merely leaked classified data and sold pieces of it here and there. He is basically living the life of a celebrity right now yet dramafies his existence.

He hasn't sacrificed his life in the sense that he's dead, but he has sacrificed it in the sense that he left behind the quite comfortable life he had back home. And if he gets extradited, who knows what kind of punishment he'd receive. He was willing to risk his liberty and possibly his life for his country. That makes him a hero by any reasonable definition.

I wish I could say something in defense to all of you Snowden-zealots who would kiss his feet when in eyesight - but I am affraid of getting karma-killed again.

Don't be this naive, please.

Re: Email service used by Snowden shuts down, warns against using US-based companies

#67

Post by madaxe »

criley2 wrote: post #8
spodek wrote: post #5

"Can we call it a police state now?" I saw the question on Reddit after a different revelation last month. I feel like we're going to ask that question more and more. I can only hope more and more of us are inspired, as Snowden was by Levinson (Lavabit's CEO) and many of us have been by both of them, and we act to protect ourselves and constrain our governments from overreaching to where they can't help repeating the…

My reply on Reddit when I see people bring that up is simple: You insult people who have experienced a police state by calling what we are experiencing a police state. A police state has no distinction between legislation and executive. Our legislation is currently investigating the president for: * CIA coverup of the attack on our Benghazi consulate' * IRS targeting of political opposition They're planning on using…

You have a distinction between legislative and executive in principle.

In practice, however, the tail wags the dog.

Re: Email service used by Snowden shuts down, warns against using US-based companies

#69

Post by MisterWebz »

twoodfin wrote: post #37
nazgulnarsil wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're being pedantic. No knock, no warrant, no redress when they murder you or a loved one for your family = police state, plain and simple.

I hope pg is reading these comments and is pleased that hn has become one more of the innumerable discussion boards where calling the U.S. a "police state, plain and simple" has become part of the everyday discourse. Yuck. I know there has always been a strain of the paranoid (sometimes well-earned) in hacker culture, but presumably it wasn't what this site was built to highlight.

You can increase the quality of HN threads by replying to such "paranoid" comments with a counter-argument instead of complaining.

Re: Email service used by Snowden shuts down, warns against using US-based companies

#70

Post by MrKurtz »

greyman wrote: post #51
MrKurtz wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shifting the blame and the burden for policy reform onto firms is not only silly but also unfair, you can't really expect them to shut down, they are not one man operations like Lavabit.

It is not unfair. At least some of them, most notably Google and Facebook, actively allure their users to share more and more of their private data, while misleadingly claiming, that they are able to keep them safe. If more and more people will realize the risks of sharing their personal data with those companies, it can endanger their whole business model. So who should fight most vigorously, if not them? And nobody…

You can't declare that they're not fighting because you have no knowledge of what is being done by their lawyers and lobbyists, especially since the courts involved are secret.

Lobbying scales better than shutting down or suspending service.

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