Lavabit founder: 'If You Knew What I Know About Email, You Might Not Use It'

[MineralMan]

49. The government has access to financial transactions already,

and does not have to use the NSA or other intelligence agencies to discover them. Existing reporting laws for the banking industry take care of that pretty well, with the FBI being the lead agency involved with domestic money laundering, etc. The DEA does the "war on drugs" thing. The NSA, CIA, DIA and other such organizations are interested in issues relating to other countries. It's all divided up, with only a little cross-over. The agencies are competitive, mostly, and cooperative with each other only sometimes. That leads to a bunch of other problems, but those are not the current topic, really.

My point in this thread is that I would not trust third parties with sensitive communications. What's to stop government agencies from setting up such "secure" hubs and email handlers? Think about it. They're interested in such communications. Why would they not be in the lead in offering such services - on a sub rosa basis, of course?

I find it amusing that nobody ever considers such a thing when such companies suddenly "shut down." Don't you?