Lavabit

Lavabit is an email service founded in 2004 that suspended operations in August 2013. It is owned and operated by Ladar Levison.

History
Lavabit was founded by Texas-based programmers who formed Nerdshack LLC, renamed Lavabit LLC the next year, allegedly prompted by privacy concerns about Gmail, Google's free, widely-used email service, and their use of the content of users' email to generate advertisements and marketing data. Lavabit offered significant privacy protection for their users' email, including asymmetric encryption. The strength of the cryptographic methods used was of a level that is difficult for even intelligence agencies to crack. Ghacks called it "probably the most secure, private email service right now". In August 2013, they had about 410,000 users and offered free and paid accounts with levels of storage ranging from 128 megabytes to 8 gigabytes.

On June 10, 2013, a search warrant was executed against Lavabit user Joey006@lavabit.com for alleged possession of child pornography. It is unclear whether this warrant was in any way related to Lavabit's subsequent shutdown.

Connection to Edward Snowden
Lavabit received media attention in July 2013 when it was revealed that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden was using the Lavabit email address edsnowden@lavabit.com to email human rights lawyers and activists to a press conference during his confinement at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow.

Suspension
On August 8, 2013, Lavabit suspended its operations, and the email service log-in page was replaced by a message from the owner and operator Ladar Levison. The New Yorker suggested that the suspension might be related to the National Security Agency’s "domestic-surveillance practices". Levison wrote on his site that he was legally unable to explain why he ended the service, and instead asked for donations to "fight for the Constitution" in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Wired speculated that Levison was fighting a warrant or national security letter seeking customer information under extraordinary circumstances, as Lavabit had complied with at least one routine warrant in the past. Lavabit is believed to be the first technology firm which chose to suspend/shut down its operation rather than comply with an order from the United States government to reveal information or grant access to information. Silent Circle, an encrypted email, mobile video and voice service provider, followed the example of Lavabit by discontinuing its encrypted email services. Citing the impossibility of being able to maintain the confidentiality of its customers' emails should it be served with government orders, Silent Circle permanently erased the encryption keys which allowed access to emails stored or transmitted by its service.

A letter from Ladar Levison was posted on the Lavabit website after it was shutdown. It read: "My Fellow Users,

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on--the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this.

Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.

What’s going to happen now? We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company.

This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.

Sincerely, Ladar Levison Owner and Operator, Lavabit LLC

Defending the constitution is expensive! Help us by donating to the Lavabit Legal Defense Fund here."