Lavabit email service has to close

“Dear friends, I was forced to make a difficult choice: to become an accomplice in a crime against the American people or to give up almost ten years of hard work and close Lavabit. After much thought, I decided to stop working, ” writes Ladar Levison, founder and owner of the Lavabit postal service.

Lavabit is an anonymous email service that Edward Snowden allegedly used while in Sheremetyevo. The service supported encryption of mail in the browser before sending, so even the archive on the server was stored in a securely encrypted form . Before closing, about 410 thousand email accounts were registered in Lavabit .

“I would like to have a legal opportunity to tell you about all the events that led to such a decision of mine, but I can’t. I feel that you deserve to know what is happening. The first amendment should guarantee me freedom of speech in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress passed laws that say otherwise. At this stage, I can’t share the events of the past six weeks, although I sent requests twice [to be allowed to do this], ”writes the founder of Lavabit. He does not intend to give up and is now preparing documents for submission to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit of the United States. “A positive court decision will allow me to revive Lavabit as an American company,” he says.

Ladar Levison does not go into the details of his case, but addresses all users: “Past events taught me one very important lesson: before the decision of Congress or a clear judicial precedent, I _very_ do not recommend anyone to trust the personal data of a company that is physically tied to the United States” .

Levison encourages all sympathizers to send donations to the Lavabit Legal Defense Fund to support the future legal process.