14 DAY TRIAL // Lavabit's announcement last week that it was shutting down its rather popular encrypted email service came as a surprise to many, and not a pleasant one at that, as customers found themselves cut off from their messages and contacts.
While many were upset, it's now clear that Lavabit didn't choose the nuclear option lightly and that the alternative was much worse than people losing a few recent messages and an email address.
The speculation was that the shutdown had something to do with whistleblower Edward Snowden, which apparently used the secure email service himself.
But new details indicate that this isn't' the case. In fact, the US government had issued requests for data before Snowden revealed anything in unrelated cases.
And, Ladar Levison, Lavabit's owner, complied with the lawful requests. He says that he doesn't have a problem cooperating with authorities, when it's appropriate. In the years he's run the service, he's gotten about a dozen requests, with which he complied if possible, i.e. if the data the government sought was there and was unencrypted.
But things have changed and, while he's forbidden from talking about it, it seems that the government has gotten a lot greedier more recently. Levinson says he's most upset not with the request, but with the fact that he has to keep it a secret.
The safe assumption is that the government either asked him to intercept the communication of one or all of his customers, i.e. bypass the encryption on which the service is built.
Levinson chose to shut down the company rather than compromise everything it stood for. But his legal troubles aren't over, he's still fighting for the chance to reveal what all of this was about. He's raising funds for this and, at this point, he's gotten some $90,000 which probably isn't enough.