While Lavabit initially had quite a bit of media coverage over this issue, the hype seems to be a casualty of our frenzied newscycle. But after looking closely at the facts here, I now see that this is a monumentally important issue, one that the media needs to once again address. The message here is that US courts can force a business to subvert their own security measures and lie to their customers, deliberately giving them a false sense of security. They can say what they want about security on their web sites, it means nothing. If they did it to Lavabit, how many hundreds or thousands of other US companies already participate in this deception?
If the courts can force a business to lie, we can never again trust the security claims of any US company. The reason so many businesses specifically rely on US services is the sense of stability and trust. How sad that an overreaching and panicked pursuit of a whistleblower has thrown that all away.
This issue is so much more than a simple civil liberties dispute, it is the integrity of a nation at stake. We walked with the devil in a time of need–that is a legacy we must live with–but at what point do we sever that relationship and return to the integrity required to lead the world through respect and not by fear?
The rest of the article is pretty technical, but this is the important bit. If people and companies can’t trust US companies with their secure information, that’s going to hurt the internet sector a lot, and we’ll see the disruption at the macro level.
Are there ANY politicians talking about this? Will any politician even promise to restore the right to be free from unreasonable search & seizure?