Australian Email Service FastMail Says It is Losing Customers and Facing Calls To Move Operations Outside of the Country Over Local Anti-Encryption Laws (itnews.com.au) 65
An anonymous reader shares a report: Email provider FastMail says it has lost customers and faces "regular" requests to shift its operations outside Australia following the passage of anti-encryption laws. The Victorian company, which offers ad-free email services to users in 150 countries, told a senate committee that the now-passed laws were starting to bite.
"The way in which [the laws] were introduced, debated, and ultimately passed ... creates a perception that Australia has changed - that we are no longer a country which respects the right to privacy," FastMail CEO Bron Gondwana said. "We have already seen an impact on our business caused by this perception. Our particular service is not materially affected as we already respond to warrants under the Telecommunications Act." "Still, we have seen existing customers leave, and potential customers go elsewhere, citing this bill as the reason for their choice. We are [also] regularly being asked by customers if we plan to move."
"The way in which [the laws] were introduced, debated, and ultimately passed ... creates a perception that Australia has changed - that we are no longer a country which respects the right to privacy," FastMail CEO Bron Gondwana said. "We have already seen an impact on our business caused by this perception. Our particular service is not materially affected as we already respond to warrants under the Telecommunications Act." "Still, we have seen existing customers leave, and potential customers go elsewhere, citing this bill as the reason for their choice. We are [also] regularly being asked by customers if we plan to move."
Re: AUSTRIA LAST PLACE I WANT MY EMAIL (Score:1)
If you don't know the difference between Australia and Austria you probably should STFU.
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We love and support anti-encryption laws (Score:5, Insightful)
We love and support anti-encryption laws.
See you soon,
-Hackers and Malicious State Actors Everywhere.
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The problem is the perception and not the reality. Damage is already done.
Re: We love and support anti-encryption laws (Score:4, Informative)
The truth is, no one reads the bills anymore.
I read it, twice. I wrote two forty page submissions to government about why this Bill was bad. The bill was actually called telecommunication assistance act, and does not ban encryption, and actually has a clause preventing government from ordering any weakness insecurity for anyone other than the one individual in question.
What it does is order is a front door be constructed so that government can access everything.
The encryption laws are totally misunderstood and said wrong in media.
There is no back door or weakness.
Inherently, the bill does not define what a "systemic weakness" is whilst relying on it as a primary concept in the bill.
What the law does ask is that if the government gets a court order for a users information, the company needs to help by logging that particular users encryption key or password, next time they log in for instance.
No it does not. The Bill delegates powers through the Attorney General to the heads of various police department. Except the ones investigating government corruption - they are excluded from accessing these powers in pursuit of a politician.
It specifically criminalizes information technology professionals who do not want to have their skill set used to spy on fellow citizens through Technical Assistance Notices and other legal mechanisms to compel an innocent 3rd party to co-operate.
There is no law banning encryption.
Just by-passes it.
It actually changes nothing because judges can already order you to capture a password or encryption key for you, it just sets up a commission that makes the process faster.
10 years jail and $60,000 in fines for not co-operating hardly qualifies as no change. You need read these laws if you hope to understand why they are so bad.
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What does this change for me as a user? I cannot trust this provider so I have to move my business elsewhere.
Bad Customer Service (Score:4, Informative)
I'm sure their downfall has nothing to do with bad customer service... like closing down someone's account because they haven't used it in a few months- despite paying for a LIFETIME no ad membership over a decade ago.
If I have a paid membership; whether I use the account on a regular basis or not is my business, I paid for it.
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Did you request a refund? Anyone who had a lifetime account can request a refund now they have moved to subscription.
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Indeed. Sometimes my fastmail account info pops up, and that vein in my forehead starts throbbing over their crappy behavior.
Remember when "Aussie Rules" meant ballsy? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not anymore, apparently. It looks like tough, independent Australians are being turned into an obedient little slaves to Big Brother.
I would recommend Proton Mail, either the free or paid version. It's based in Switzerland and dedicated to protecting the privacy of its users.
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Switzerland, eh? I heard their security was full of holes [instantrimshot.com].
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What do you mean? The Swiss are some of the worlds...
oh
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Loved the link. Well played, sir!
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Well, it starts when they take away your guns, and then the govt figures the populace has no way to fight back, and then they start slowing eroding your rights.
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Well, it starts when they take away your guns, and then the govt figures the populace has no way to fight back, and then they start slowing eroding your rights.
So how many people with guns showed up at the FCC or NSA or local government offices or TSA or ICE or HS when your rights have been eroded?
And what do you think would happen if they did.
If you think having guns is protecting you from the gubmint, you're seriously deluded.
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So you're saying Americans, who have all kinds of guns, are such natural-born cowards they didn't have the balls to protect their rights when the so-called "Patriot Act" was dropped on them by their government?
Or are you maybe just full of crap, and guns have nothing to do with it one way or the other?
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The actual data centers arn't in Australia, they are located in the US (New Jersey and Washington) and the Netherlands. This is the same problem that Microsoft faced with data hosted in Ireland when it was served with a request from the US government. It boils down to if the company has control and access. If so, then it doesn't matter where the data is located if the company has presence in the country making the request.
At my company, we partition our data operations. Our EU data centers are operated by a
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Aussie Rules never meant ballsy. It meant "Go grab and egg and run around kicking it as if there were no rules what so ever".
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Don't believe Proton's claims. They won't let you make an account without one of:
They say they offer private mail but go try to make an account over Tor or pay with XMR and see how you do.
They've also wiped old accounts that were made privately.
It has all the signs of being a honeypot. Be informed and beware.
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It has all the signs of being a honeypot. Be informed and beware.
Thanks. Any suggestions?
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At least you know they are spying and they pass laws to do it. Here in the US alphabet agencies illegally spy on our citizens all the time without their knowledge. When someone brings it up they become the bad guy cause terrorism and rigged elections and Russia and ... Brown man scary.
Pretty sure the majority of the people in the US know they are getting spied on. The problem is nobody cares. They just keep staring at their screens regardless.
Excellent tech support and service (Score:3)
Fastmail customer support is *awesome*. As a longshot, I once asked their support to send me logs from the SMTP server showing the handoff of e-mail to the receiving mail server, (to settle a dispute with another party.). And much to my surprise, they *did*, in less than a business day.
The fastmail system is much more capable and user friendly to manage multiple users and domains than Gmail, and includes some good old file based webhosting.
And,, umm, it's already a given that e-mail is not an encrypted protocol, and I'm already well aware that their storage is not encrypted.
(Neither is Google's.. don't be fooled)
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it's already a given that e-mail is not an encrypted protocol
Not in its original design. But I think most e-mail servers use TLS or SSL nowadays for their connections.
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The key part is that this is not at all within your control. Your message may be encrypted between you and your server, but that's where your knowledge and control ends.
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Thanks for the kind words! We're very proud of our support department and their close integration with the technical team.
Oz government replies (Score:3)
We don't give a shit. A few might move overseas, most emailers are too thick to understand the laws - so we will read their email when we want to. Those who moved: we'll just send the cops round with a $5 wrench.
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Well, they're on AEST (UTC+10), so they're ahead of almost the whole rest of the world now!
The 'cloud' is doomed if governments do this. (Score:2)
As somebody who looks after mail servers a skill deemed worthless by cloud fanboys how is the cloud dream living up to reality?
Fastmail + Protonmail? (Score:3)
It sucks for them because fastmail is genuinely good at what they do. I too switched to Protonmail over this, though i realize not much has materially changed. But the chilling effect is real due to the amount of secrecy surrounding the new laws.
As two big alternative providers, it seems they'd be well positioned to take the lead on fast and encrypted email. Form an industry alliance, make a new protocol to integrate encryption and help obsolete IMAP, and offer e2e encryption between their customer bases as the incentive for other providers to join in.
Google isn't going to do it any time soon, but Apple might also be interested with their push for privacy. Having first class modern encryption support in Mail.app on macos and ios would be fantastic.
Stupid is as stupid does, Aussie Edition (Score:2)
you have no rights (Score:2)
Is that the Australia which doesn't have a bill of rights for it's citizens ?
Is that the Australia which doesn't talk about operational matters ?
is that the Australia which has a broken freedom of information system ?
is that the Australia which is a member of 5 eyes, and doesn't mind watching Australian citizens ?
is that the Australia in which both major parties lick the eagles arse ?
Well till opensource is legal there is choice. (Score:1)