[abaco]

Problem is quite a few european countries right now don't trust american companies anymore so they are working on their own mail service, cloud, network and hardware components, ... (you know if american companies agreed with american government to spy on us they kinda deserve a nice fk off).

So who is damaged by this european behaviour? American companies. And now Google is suddenly concerned about our privacy.

Middle finger?

[dkopi]

"if american companies agreed with american government" Just as a reminder, The government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day if it did not immediately cave in and comply with the secret court order. http://www.wired.com/2014/09/feds-yahoo-fine-prism/

This blog post could actually be Google's way of silently signaling us that the US gov't is still strong arming american companies, and it needs the help of public pressure in order to keep our information safe and secure.

[mhurron]

> could actually be Google's way of silently signaling us that the US gov't is still strong arming american companies

Or it could be Googles way of looking like a good guy without actually doing anything. How you look at it depends on how much you want to trust them, or any other company that does something similar.

Personally I will never ascribe good intentions to any amoral entity. Google is going to do like every other business will do, what ever it takes to increase the bottom line.

[k-mcgrady]

>> "The government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day if it did not immediately cave in and comply with the secret court order."

Do you think that really would have happened if the CEO or a high ranking employee came out publicly and explained what was happening? There is no way the fines would have happened or anyone would have been prosecuted. Sure the USG could have done it but they would have been insane to.

[mudetroit]

Be very careful thinking that they would not have attempted to prosecute them and/or punish the company for doing so. The wonderful fun of these secret courts, that we are stuck with for the moment, is that everything the do is stuck under gag order. You have to deal with the prospect of an angry judge or prosecutor at that point, and don't discount the likelihood of them being vindictive.

[drjesusphd]

> The government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day

That had to have been a bluff. There's no way to hide that kind of money from the balance sheet of a public company.

[thisjepisje]

Middelvinger.

But seriously, got some more info on these European services? I don't watch these matters very closely lately, would be interested in looking into it.

[abaco]

I am italian, would be surprise if a member of our government is even able to switch on a computer.

But I know that in Germany (for example) this problem is a big thing http://www.zdnet.com/worried-about-your-email-security-in-ge...

http://www.bohnen-kallmorgen.com/root/index.php?page_id=123

[BillFranklin]

In Germany the privacy laws are incredibly strict but fair to consumers rather than corporations.

[jdimov]

There's the EU-funded FI-WARE cloud platform. Completely free to use for European start-ups and comes with 80 million euros in EU grants for start-ups using it. http://www.fi-ware.org/

[voxic11]

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/protonmail is an example

[microtonal]

Not a government-sponsored initiative, but:

https://mailbox.org/en/