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Lavabit's Ladar Levison: 'If You Knew What I Know About Email, You Might Not Use It'
Forbes ^ | August 9, 2013 | Kashmir Hill

Posted on 08/10/2013 1:25:46 PM PDT by NCjim

Ladar Levison, 32, has spent ten years building encrypted email service Lavabit, attracting over 410,000 users. When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was revealed to be one of those users in July, Dallas-based Lavabit got a surge of new customers: $12,000 worth of paid subscribers, triple his usual monthly sign-up. On Thursday, though, Levison pulled the plug on his company, posting a cryptic message about a government investigation that would force him to “become complicit in crimes against the American people” were he to stay in business. Many people have speculated that the investigation concerned the government trying to get access to the email of Edward Snowden, who has been charged with espionage. There are legal restrictions which prevent Levison from being more specific about a protest of government methods that has forced him to shutter his company, an unprecedented move.

“This is about protecting all of our users, not just one in particular. It’s not my place to decide whether an investigation is just, but the government has the legal authority to force you to do things you’re uncomfortable with,” said Levison in a phone call on Friday. “The fact that I can’t talk about this is as big a problem as what they asked me to do.”

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bigbrother; nsa; nwo; privacy; snowden; spyingoncitizens; whistleblowers
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To: JRandomFreeper
Encrypted mail servers don't work that way.

Yeah, I know - that's what this guy's company offers.

I have not done any Linux email server admin in a while, but using out-of-the-box sendmail, it is not encrypted. Of course you can encrypt your emails prior to sending them and then they are not readable.

41 posted on 08/10/2013 2:17:18 PM PDT by Mannaggia l'America
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To: steve86
Good encryped mail packages retrain encryption throughout. Toy packages may not. I'm also a linux sysadmin.

/johnny

42 posted on 08/10/2013 2:17:52 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Gene Eric
The contents can be encrypted using common algorithms; methods no ordinary admin can crack.

Yes, I did know that. Pretty sure most people don't use an email client that does that though.

43 posted on 08/10/2013 2:19:07 PM PDT by Mannaggia l'America
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To: Mannaggia l'America
Out-of-the-box sendmail should come with a HOWTO on acquiring horse tranquilizers. I hate sendmail. ;)

/johnny

44 posted on 08/10/2013 2:22:04 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: null and void
This ability provides the ones who have access to it, to use the information for enormous profits only dreamt of by insider traders, to coerce those with political clout for protection, and finally/eventually as a tool to stop any ideas the people may have to put a stop it.

They will never willing give up this kind of power...

The only real option is to develop a technology that gets around it - encrypted, distributed, P2P systems for ALL communications.

45 posted on 08/10/2013 2:22:27 PM PDT by Errant
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sfl


46 posted on 08/10/2013 2:28:30 PM PDT by phockthis (http://www.supremelaw.org/fedzone11/index.htm ...)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Re: “Typically, these secret orders, from the secret courts, stipulate jail time for service providers that speak out about the contents of the secret orders.”

If they break the secret orders, they are sent to secret prisons.

In secret locations, with secret guards.

And the secret judges and secret administrators are protected by secret immunity.

I can’t tell you how I know all these secret things, because that’s a secret.


47 posted on 08/10/2013 2:34:26 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: zeestephen
EFF is among many fighting this crap so that it doesn't get that stupid.

/johnny

48 posted on 08/10/2013 2:43:45 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JRandomFreeper

So was I a Linux sysadmin but this is an application issue with next to nothing to do with the OS (except the part about sendmail).


49 posted on 08/10/2013 2:45:39 PM PDT by steve86 (despairing but what can I do)
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To: steve86
That's why I said packages.

/johnny

50 posted on 08/10/2013 2:46:58 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JRandomFreeper

EFF?


51 posted on 08/10/2013 2:48:08 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: JRandomFreeper

They don’t call it “double secret probation” for nothin’.


52 posted on 08/10/2013 2:51:17 PM PDT by 21twelve ("We've got the guns, and we got the numbers" adapted and revised from Jim M.)
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To: null and void

Totally unconstitutional.


53 posted on 08/10/2013 2:52:14 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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Bookmark for later!


54 posted on 08/10/2013 2:53:08 PM PDT by 2nd amendment mama ( www.2asisters.org | Self defense is a basic human right!)
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To: zeestephen
Electronic Frontier Foundation. They have been around for a while. I've supported them when I can. They support digital freedoms in the real world, going back to the Philip Zimmerman encryption case from the federal government.

I actually do have the t-shirt on that one. I bought the t-shirt to help pay for the lawyers.

/johnny

55 posted on 08/10/2013 2:55:56 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Jim Robinson
Totally unconstitutional.

So are a lot of things, but the government is getting away with it.

/johnny

56 posted on 08/10/2013 2:57:04 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: bkaycee
Hmmmm, where is Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon now?

I believe they're at the White Hut with Alec Baldwin and Babs Streisand playing human centipede with obammy.

57 posted on 08/10/2013 2:57:44 PM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To the left the truth looks like Right-Wing extremism.)
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To: zeestephen

I know them because I have worked with escapees from the old Soviet Union.


58 posted on 08/10/2013 3:29:22 PM PDT by null and void (Frequent terrorist attacks OR endless government snooping and oppression? Soon we'll have both!)
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To: Jim Robinson

Yep, and not even I will ask if they are forcing you to do this.


59 posted on 08/10/2013 3:30:41 PM PDT by null and void (Frequent terrorist attacks OR endless government snooping and oppression? Soon we'll have both!)
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To: Jim Robinson
Totally unconstitutional.

This is true; however I believe that the word unconstitutional has lost punch since it's thrown about way too often.
I prefer 'contraconstitutional' which better describes actions directly contrary to the Constitution.

60 posted on 08/10/2013 3:38:46 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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