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BetterRed · 10-02-2013, 08:48 PM

@unboggling - My 8+ years of Lavabit use had nothing to do with hiding myself or my messages. My ISP does not offer IMap, Google was going through its "you did have mail, but we lost it" phase, hotmail required me to install WebDav connectors which only worked with their mail clients, and yahoo is... well its yahoo

I chose Lavabit (from several commercial mail service providers) because it was simple (its UI didn't change at all in the 8-9 years I used it - I love that), it had no record of ever losing any mail, it worked with the several mail clients I tested. And it was a small business - I'm a capitalist, so I encourage entrepreneurs and start ups - sometimes by investing in them, more often by paying for their services.

All that stuff in the media about it using very secure encryption is bullshit as far as I'm concerned - maybe there was some super duper premium service that did that - but it must have been a secret because I never saw it.

I had almost nine years of my 'important' mail on the Lavabit servers that I could access from wherever I happened to be - even in China. I had mail to/from Tax authorities and banks in UK, SNG, NZ & AUS, US immigration, my solicitors, my partner, my mum and aunties, friends in lots of countries, mates serving in US & Aus armed forces in Afghanistan & Iraq, doctors and hospitals etc etc. Now all I have is a mish mash of Outlook pst and eml files on a couple of hard disks.

The NSA would have known of Snowden's use of Lavabit, and they would have been monitoring his account (mine too no doubt). Just after HRW Moscow agent Tanya Lokshina's posted Snowden's email addy on her Facebook account a couple of Congressman jumped up and down and asked what the Administration was doing about it - slam, bam and damn the consequences, it was closed down. You might wonder how the US congressmen knew of Tanya's post - a link to it appeared in an article on the UK Telegraph site - that's where I found it, maybe a Congressman's intern did too.

I imagine the NSA would have preferred otherwise, but for purely political reasons it was closed down - and 410,000 people lost all their mail, primarily US citizens, no doubt some conducting small legitimate businesses employing other US citizens - and no doubt all paying their health insurance and taxes.

Am I pissed off, yes, very much so - but I'll shut up now - did the OP ever make a 2nd post?

br

10-02-2013, 08:48 PM	#27
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 21,825 Karma: 30277270 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	@unboggling - My 8+ years of Lavabit use had nothing to do with hiding myself or my messages. My ISP does not offer IMap, Google was going through its "you did have mail, but we lost it" phase, hotmail required me to install WebDav connectors which only worked with their mail clients, and yahoo is... well its yahoo I chose Lavabit (from several commercial mail service providers) because it was simple (its UI didn't change at all in the 8-9 years I used it - I love that), it had no record of ever losing any mail, it worked with the several mail clients I tested. And it was a small business - I'm a capitalist, so I encourage entrepreneurs and start ups - sometimes by investing in them, more often by paying for their services. All that stuff in the media about it using very secure encryption is bullshit as far as I'm concerned - maybe there was some super duper premium service that did that - but it must have been a secret because I never saw it. I had almost nine years of my 'important' mail on the Lavabit servers that I could access from wherever I happened to be - even in China. I had mail to/from Tax authorities and banks in UK, SNG, NZ & AUS, US immigration, my solicitors, my partner, my mum and aunties, friends in lots of countries, mates serving in US & Aus armed forces in Afghanistan & Iraq, doctors and hospitals etc etc. Now all I have is a mish mash of Outlook pst and eml files on a couple of hard disks. The NSA would have known of Snowden's use of Lavabit, and they would have been monitoring his account (mine too no doubt). Just after HRW Moscow agent Tanya Lokshina's posted Snowden's email addy on her Facebook account a couple of Congressman jumped up and down and asked what the Administration was doing about it - slam, bam and damn the consequences, it was closed down. You might wonder how the US congressmen knew of Tanya's post - a link to it appeared in an article on the UK Telegraph site - that's where I found it, maybe a Congressman's intern did too. I imagine the NSA would have preferred otherwise, but for purely political reasons it was closed down - and 410,000 people lost all their mail, primarily US citizens, no doubt some conducting small legitimate businesses employing other US citizens - and no doubt all paying their health insurance and taxes. Am I pissed off, yes, very much so - but I'll shut up now - did the OP ever make a 2nd post? br