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FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you

blog.fastmail.fm

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Re: FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you

#151

Post by notacoward »

devb wrote: post #141
znowi wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood this rationalization for what is essentially a corrupt behavior. People find excuses to keep the corrupt system going. I see it as a collective madness. Those companies, being a huge influence on the internet culture and economy, a trend-setter, one might even say the internet gatekeepers - I think they not only should disclose and vehemently oppose any attempts on user rights, but it is their mora…

> moral obligation Keep in mind that these companies' only obligations are to their shareholders.

True, but that obligation is often misinterpreted. The legally binding definition of "shareholder value" includes more than the short-term stock price. Since bad corporate behavior carries a risk, with potential consequences up to and including a catastrophic loss of custom, it's a liability even when it's perfectly legal and boosts near-term profits. Corporate officers who take on such risk without adequate disclosure or contingency plans can be removed and/or sued for it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/09/h...

Re: FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you

#152

Post by danenania »

gregd wrote: post #129
danenania wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand your viewpoint, but I don't accept that as an excuse. Remember how quickly SOPA sank after the Silicon Valley establishment turned against it? Do you think the government is going to put the CEOs of some of America's most popular and profitable companies in jail for an act of civil disobedience that the majority of the country and the world would support wholeheartedly? SV is more powerful than it realiz…

SOPA was easy to turn against and I would argue, didn't cost anything to oppose. Fighting the NSA on warrantless wiretaps is a completely different animal in that there will be real money involved in fighting it. Potentially millions of dollars duking it out in court(s). I think it's already been established that the NSA has HUGE financial resources (from the part that we can tell) and to top it all off, fighting the…

The NSA has financial resources but it's short on political capital. If all the big tech companies were to collectively and publicly decide as a matter of principle to stop adhering to gag orders and cooperating with wholesale monitoring regardless of what FISA says, what is the administration going to do? Shut down Facebook? Shut down Google? Could you imagine? Public opinion is already firmly against them on these issues. Actions like those would make them utterly despised.

Re: FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you

#153

Post by routelastresort »

danenania wrote: post #42
annnnd wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that G, FB, A and MS are not in a position where they can write such disclosure. I am not arguing with your main point, I applaud FastMail for taking a stand - it's just that USA companies must use "ambiguous slimeball statements" to at least appear clean (because they are not). I would argue that if FastMail were an USA company their statements (if any) would be just as ambiguous as those of G, FB, A and MS.

I understand your viewpoint, but I don't accept that as an excuse. Remember how quickly SOPA sank after the Silicon Valley establishment turned against it? Do you think the government is going to put the CEOs of some of America's most popular and profitable companies in jail for an act of civil disobedience that the majority of the country and the world would support wholeheartedly? SV is more powerful than it realiz…

Unfortunately, Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt, and all of those other guys are surveillance poster boys. It's best just to not use their services, and vote with dollars.

Re: FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you

#154

Post by [deleted] »

robn_fastmail wrote: post #24
frank_boyd wrote: post #20

> our primary servers are located in the US Why would you do that, especially when you're not even a US company?

Because most of our customers are in the US. If your goal is to provide the fastest service around, it helps to put your servers near your users.

[deleted]

Re: FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you

#155

Post by duskwuff »

dsl wrote: post #43
duskwuff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is some historical precedent for such methods. I believe one popular CDN (possibly Akamai?) has its nodes set up with sensors of some variety to discard sensitive data if the hardware is exposed to light.

Dell (and possibly others) servers have chassis intrusion sensors that you can trap in software, and do with as you please.

This goes beyond chassis intrusion, though - the servers are set up to freak out if anyone even opens the cage to look at them.

Re: FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you

#156

Post by pingswept »

danenania wrote: post #42
annnnd wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that G, FB, A and MS are not in a position where they can write such disclosure. I am not arguing with your main point, I applaud FastMail for taking a stand - it's just that USA companies must use "ambiguous slimeball statements" to at least appear clean (because they are not). I would argue that if FastMail were an USA company their statements (if any) would be just as ambiguous as those of G, FB, A and MS.

I understand your viewpoint, but I don't accept that as an excuse. Remember how quickly SOPA sank after the Silicon Valley establishment turned against it? Do you think the government is going to put the CEOs of some of America's most popular and profitable companies in jail for an act of civil disobedience that the majority of the country and the world would support wholeheartedly? SV is more powerful than it realiz…

I strongly agree with you. It is not clear to me how a billionaire like Larry Page is being forced into anything. It is not conceivable that he personally would be jailed if Google were to defy the US government.

It would be interesting to see what would actually happen if one of the big American internet companies just said the truth. "We have received 35 NSL's and we gave them your data."

What would actually happen? Would their stock go up or down? Would they gain or lose customers? Would anyone be prosecuted and jailed?

Re: FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you

#157

Post by andyhmltn »

TwoBit wrote: post #50
616c wrote: post #46

Thank you, Fastmail. This is why I pay for you.

Despite that they just stated that your data will be owned by the US government in a raid on the US-based fastmail servers? And with no apparent way for US-based users to avoid that?

In all fairness, how are they supposed to combat that without moving their server location?

Re: FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you

#158

Post by pppp »

bad_user wrote: post #48

I found this article brutally honest. What they are saying is that (1) NSA snooping is more expensive for the NSA as they can't engage in blanket surveillance on all of their users, while keeping them silent, but on the other hand (2) you can't expect and shouldn't assume privacy, because if the NSA wants to listen on your traffic, they will. This in combination with FastMail being acquired by its former employees, c…

I am more than willing to give FastMail twenty USD per year, so it is not expensive in that regard, but it is expense for what you get. 1GB of space? Give me a break. All of the tiers need to shift down a notch while keeping the price the same. $20 for 10 GB would be reasonable.

Re: FastMail’s servers are in the US – what this means for you

#159

Post by bad_user »

pppp wrote: post #158
bad_user wrote: post #48

I found this article brutally honest. What they are saying is that (1) NSA snooping is more expensive for the NSA as they can't engage in blanket surveillance on all of their users, while keeping them silent, but on the other hand (2) you can't expect and shouldn't assume privacy, because if the NSA wants to listen on your traffic, they will. This in combination with FastMail being acquired by its former employees, c…

I am more than willing to give FastMail twenty USD per year, so it is not expensive in that regard, but it is expense for what you get. 1GB of space? Give me a break. All of the tiers need to shift down a notch while keeping the price the same. $20 for 10 GB would be reasonable.

Well, that's what I meant. I pay something like $50 / user account yearly in Google Apps and I get 30 GB of space, plus Contacts, Calendar, Google Hangouts, Drive and all the other goodies. Paying $60 per year for email with 15 GB of storage seems kind of expensive.
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