[mariuolo]

> Should all customers, even those who really don't care if the NSA could be watching, be put out because some feel that this cause trumps actually doing business and having customer-vendor relationships?

If they don't care, why pick lavabit then?

From my point of view they did exactly what they were supposed to do.

[MyDogHasFleas]

Yep, you're right. I wasn't thinking about their specific business model and customer set. Thanks for setting me straight.

I wonder what the Lavabit TOS and privacy terms actually said? Usually they say something like "we will not disclose ... Except to comply with legally served requests..." I'm curious whether Lavabit had something different here.

Perhaps this suggests a new business model, a sort of turbo canary, where the service explicitly commits to shut down rather than comply with a secret order which it would otherwise be compelled to obey.