Inside the Decision To Shut Down Silent Mail 182
Trailrunner7 writes with this snippet from ThreatPost:: "Silent Circle's decision to shut down its Silent Mail email service may have come quickly yesterday, and the timing of the announcement admittedly was prompted by Lavabit's decision to suspend operations hours before. But the seeds for this decision may have been sown long before Edward Snowden, who reportedly used Lavabit as a secure email provider, was a household name and NSA warrants for customer data were known costs of doing business. ... 'When we saw the Lavabit announcement, the thing we were worrying about had happened, and it had happened to somebody else. It was very difficult to not think I'm next,' Callas said. 'I had been discussing with Phil [founder and PGP developer Phil Zimmerman] over dinner the night before, should we be doing this and what the timing should be. I was looking at it from point that I want to be a responsible service provider and not leave users in a lurch. [The Lavabit announcement] told me I have to start moving on it now.'"
PGP does not run on mobile devices (Score:5, Informative)
Because... (Score:5, Informative)
US businesses are run under US laws even if they are outside the US. This is related to that whole 'you can't bribery, even in countries where that's the norm' thing others have talked about in previous article's comments.
Basically in order to, as a US citizen, move your business abroad (without serious lobbying power) and forgoe the aforementioned issues, you're need to:
A. Reincorporate the business in a foreign nation.
B. Get your customer data transferred to the foreign nation without running afoul of US law.
C. Not have US citizens who are on the board/in key positions intimidated through legal or extralegal means to provide governmental access to the information.
Given that Zimmerman is one of the members of this particular company, and went through the predecessors to this with PGP, I'm pretty sure he's well aware of the legal ramifications both domestic and abroad at relocating his business.
Re:Why not move? (Score:5, Informative)
Antigua
Nice climate, white sandy beaches, government not worried about telling the US where they can put their IP laws.
Re:The Government Wins (Score:5, Informative)
And what is the name for all of the businesses who just merrily went along with government requests?
Corporations. They make fascism [econlib.org] much easier to implement. An out of control judiciary provides the nudges necessary to force most businesses to adopt a corporate form.
Re:PGP does not run on mobile devices (Score:3, Informative)
K9 mail only supports PGP/Inline, without the ability to even read PGP/MIME. PGP/Inline has been depreciated for nearly 20 years. Nearly all PGP mail sent is PGP/MIME, so K9's incomplete support is not terribly useful. From the dev's comments, he has very little interest in ever supporting PGP/MIME.
Also, with Google having root access to your Android phone and the ability to install/remove programs and modify your filesystem at will, do you really trust that your secret key is secure on their phone? Their complicity in the spying demonstrates that they're not trustworthy.
Re:American hi-tech has a significant ethics probl (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think there is any money directly attached.
Qwest said no, and lost all their government contracts, followed by the CEO being arrested for having used said government contracts' value in financial reports.
Re:American hi-tech has a significant ethics probl (Score:5, Informative)
It isn't NSA money. Compared to the world's players, the NSA isn't that big. There are a lot of people who want that data too:
1: LEOs in the US. That NSA info gets forked over to Joe DA who is being forced by the private prisons to shove as many people in jail as possible (or be replaced by someone who can), the NSA stuff is a gold mine. Find people texting at a location after dark at a park? Criminal trespass charges. Kids texting out of school, curfew charges. People on parole seen on a camera by someone else, big cash as those arrestees go in for the long haul. With the fact that all but two states in the US are required by contract to maintain 90% bed occupancy, someone has to fill those beds. Don't forget all the marijuana charges and charges of conspiracy (two people talking about a grow room can felony charges.)
2: Insurance companies. Already, I have had to go through a physical because someone snapped a photo of me in a humidor and posted it onto FB, and the insurance company questioned if I were a smoker or not, then demanded the physical and drug test. Picture the gold mine they have.
3: Other country's NSA-departments. Knowing who is a system admin at another country's sensitive /secret/top secret depot is very important, as that person can be given the $5 wrench treatment (or one of their family members) until they give up and do a Snowden. Think the US is good, China has far better technology, intel, and manpower at sigint.
4: Companies and governments. If an area is starting to have water issues, get the people moving in to raise prices on that sky high.
So, the NSA by itself isn't a threat. That data in other people's hands is. It would be nice if Google, Apple, etc. would not just keep passively handing items to advertisers, because they are on the verge of losing their entire subscriber (not customer) base to foreign services.
Re:Why not move? (Score:2, Informative)
Iceland [torrentfreak.com] is looking good...
Not only does their gov't respect the human right of privacy, the climate is ideal for major server farms.