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  • Reuters/Andrew Kelly

    Snowden's email provider confirms it was an investigation target

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    06.25.2016

    It's a poorly kept secret that officials targeted Lavabit's secure email service as part of their investigation into Edward Snowden's leaks. Heck, the US government inadvertently leaked the truth itself. However, a gag order has prevented Lavabit from publicly acknowledging this... until now. In a statement, company founder Ladar Levinson can finally confirm that law enforcement pursued Lavabit in order to access Snowden's communications. When the investigation began, authorities wanted the provider to hand over an encryption key that would not only expose Snowden, but all 410,000 Lavabit customers. It's no wonder that Levinson decided to close shop -- it's hard to advertise private email when the feds can theoretically spy on any of your users.