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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

#51

Post by greyman »

MrKurtz wrote: post #29
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.

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 says they have to immediately shut down.

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

#52

Post by muyuu »

ck2 wrote: post #4

How is it possible for Snowden to be inspired any further? He sacrified his life for us. He is the inspiration. Certainly no president in the next few terms will rest until he is rendered, he has to look over his shoulder now forever. Thank you for your sacrifice Mr. Snowden.

I think the wording there is a bit over the top, but yeah he has made great sacrifices and what he's doing is great.

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

#53

Post by jedbrown »

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 private key when they wish to access the mail. The implication in this shutdown is that the basic security model would be compromised, allowing untargeted retroactive snooping without needing to wait for the user to log in. Such a system is functionally equivalent to not having server-side encryption at all. Regardless of your stance on government snooping, this is just bad security, allowing a successful attacker to take all data in one shot rather than only being able to snoop on users currently accessing their mail.

[1] http://ia600908.us.archive.org/9/items/gov.uscourts.mdd.2362... [2] http://possibility.com/LavabitArchitecture.html

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

#54

Post by at-fates-hands »

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…

I don't know about a police state, but I've maintained for a while we're clearly living in a very dystopian society.

The problem now is who's going to step into the vacuum and start providing services these people are being persecuted for?? I think this is the real issue. The further you push people down, the more they scatter and go further underground.

Sad, sad state of affairs for this country. . .

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

#55

Post by MWil »

twoodfin wrote: post #31
RyanZAG wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you in that a key difference would be if people were held accountable for illegal acts. However, simply investigating the president is not enough - it would actually need to be possible for him to be accused and held liable. An investigation in which the conclusion is already obvious and no one will be held accountable is not really an investigation, it is only smoke and mirrors. Throwing out one set of…

Why are you so sure these programs are illegal? Might it be possible that you find them distasteful, but that under our current Constitutional and legal regime, there's nothing for anyone to be "held accountable" for?

Constitutional challenges come in two forms: "on their face" and "as applied"

The people who argue this is constitutional have really only addressed the "on it's face"/prima facie sort of constitutionality.

Whereas, "as applied" is both harder to defend and attack because we know so little.

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

#56

Post by jokoon »

The darker side of this, they can't speak about it because of state secrets, and any other individuals involved in other stuff has to deal with the same problem.

I'd think, people would end up speaking out when they're threatened by the NSA to shut up, but they have nowhere to go for legal advice.

I wonder if the government or the NSA could manage to shut down a class action if there would be one.

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

#57

Post by buro9 »

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…

It is a surveillance state, the police state follows.

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

#58

Post by Raphmedia »

anovikov wrote: post #13
ck2 wrote: post #4

How is it possible for Snowden to be inspired any further? He sacrified his life for us. He is the inspiration. Certainly no president in the next few terms will rest until he is rendered, he has to look over his shoulder now forever. Thank you for your sacrifice Mr. Snowden.

Sounds almost like he self-immolated. Russia is not such a bad place after all, for people with cash, and as a good professional he will certainly get some, and will enjoy celebrity status, and KGB will care for him rather than scare him.

Good bye all your friends. Good bye your childhood house. Good bye your parents.

And what I think should stands as the most important for people of your country... Good bye America.

Yep, sounds like he sacrificed his life. Sure, he can build a new one. But his last one? Pretty much destroyed.

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

#59

Post by 00rion »

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.

If you don't like the conversation then leave.

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

#60

Post by greyman »

mhurron wrote: post #22

And now we have completed the move to the story is about Snowden. I wonder what his favorite food is? What is his favorite band? Where is his favorite place to shop? What does he think of the architecture of St. Basils? A few more weeks and it will be 'Privacy Expert Snowden says...' and no one will remember why he's even famous.

You are exaggerating a bit, aren't you? The story is quite directly related to him, so what's wrong with asking about his opinion?
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