They said they would protect your privacy, not facilitate criminal activity.
If the whole reason you want privacy is to facilitate criminal activity, you're going to have a bad time.
But it also raises the question: Doesn't political dissent often get categorized as "criminal activity?"
I think the bigger question is if these services will stand up for obviously bogus charges when it comes to political dissidents. I actually don't really have a problem with them being willing to shut down accounts associated with ransomware. However, I do understand how exceptions made for "criminal activity" can end up being directed at people who simply have a differing political opinion.
Finally, when it comes to political dissidence: If you are under the thumb of an authoritarian government, is violence taken to achieve freedom considered a "criminal act" by these privacy companies?
These companies have potentially put themselves in a very thorny situation in regards to their intended purpose.
I think there was someone who was bitching here at one time, about ProtonMail handing out some user's account by court order. And they were trying to be snarky like "oh, guess ProtonMail doesn't care about your privacy after all!" or some shit.
And your comment here completely clarifies the differences about protecting privacy from enabling you to continue your criminal activity.
I myself cannot be 100% sure my privacy would be protected, if the service I knew, was having their door knocked because they knew I'm up to no good.
Your privacy is ensured from the likes of spam, advertisements and corporate eyes reading your e-mail. Not criminal activity.
I want to know what happens when something is only a criminal activity in a state.
Is an Alabama resident moving eggs and IVF clinics to a different state considered criminal activity?
How about a Texas resident talking about getting an abortion in a different state?
I'm not sure if state governments can even requests this but it does interest me what Proton's response would be. What if it was countries instead of states?
