I Want Lavabit E-mail
Word is out that Lavabit, the encrypted e-mail system favored by world hero, Ed Snowden, is back up and running. I'd be interested in using it. Not so much because I'm worried someone's snooping my e-mail, but in honor of Ed Snowden. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me. My way of tossing him a salute, not that he'd ever know.
I followed some links to try and find out how to sign up for it and found this site that says their standard service costs $15.00 a month. Nah, not gonna do it. I guess I'll be like my bum nephew and only use online stuff that's free. Shame on me.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 11:32 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I can't imagine under what circumstances you would need encrypted email. Leave it to those who actually have something worth shielding from unwanted eyes.
As for Snowden, why do you think that something good enough for him is good enough for you? Strange.
When I first joined the Libertarian Party, there were some statewide e-mail lists. On at least one of them, members started worrying about having unencrypted e-mails. The decision was made for everyone to use the encryption program Pretty Good Privacy. It really pissed me off, even after I figured out how to use PGP, but most seemed to think it was the prudent thing to do. I thought it was paranoid.
I still do. Like this Lava thing. I can't help but think the powers- that- be could breach it if they put the time and effort into it.That, and the fact you're using encrypted mail might well attract the kind of attention you don't want.
As I wrote, it would be my form of a salute to Snowden. No biggie. I just think he's a world hero. That's not idolatry, as I've seen from at least one other bloggeree. I just think he shook up the foundations of power worldwide, which is a good thing.
and dont you think the good ole boys in our government want to know what is being sent on those encrypted emails ? child porn or advise on how to attack a railroad or shopping mall somewhere .
ever think our gov might set up a phony email service like this just to read them all and see where a problem is or who a problem could be .
Yeah, I don't think these encryption systems are as good as some claim. Like that Pretty Good Privacy thing. I had to point out to others PGP was developed out of MIT. MIT is heavily involved in government stuff, from what I understand. What's to say they don't have government employees developing an encryption system meant to be breached?
1. Pretty Good Privacy was invented by Phil Zimmermann and today continued development is by Symantec. Not MIT. No relation to MIT or the government. In fact, he was once investigated over PGP on a claim of 'exporting munitions without a license' (as if PGP was somehow munitions) because the encryption was so powerful.
2. Pretty Good Privacy's source code was available while Zimmermann was producing the program (that meant every aspect of the program was open to public inspection). Today that's not the case (which is normal for commercial software), but there are an endless number of techies who dissect programs like this one to test how they operate. I'm confident that if there was something fishy with PGP, it'd be public knowledge by now.
I did find one amusing connection to MIT.... MIT Press. During the investigation, he had the program's entire source code published as a book. The nerdy joke was that you could disassemble the book, use OCR scanning software to digitize the text on the pages, and reassemble the program on your computer, essentially (in the government's eyes) assembling munitions. He was never charged.
Just the notion of having privacy is probably a prosecutable offense now.
NSA to share data with other agencies without “minimizing” American information
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/01/obama-administration-relaxes-rules-on-nsa-intelligence-sharing/?comments=1
D.W.
Heap all the love you want on Edward Snowdon but leave the tech speculation to those who actually know what they're talking about.
Get involved with real privacy orgs like the EFF and become part of the solution. It's not difficult to educate yourselves a bit on a topic before bitching and moaning.
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