<story><title>Confidentiality at FastMail</title><url>http://blog.fastmail.com/2014/12/15/security-confidentiality/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>sgentle</author><text>In security it doesn&amp;#x27;t make sense to ask &amp;quot;is it compromised?&amp;quot; but rather &amp;quot;can it be compromised?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;For that reason, I don&amp;#x27;t think &amp;quot;we don’t participate in blanket surveillance&amp;quot; and equivalent statements are even worth the pixels they take up on your screen. It may as well say &amp;quot;our security is endorsed by His Holiness The Dalai Lama&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The Australian government has the power under the recently passed National Security Legislation Amendment [0] to issue a secret warrant compelling access to any number of computers or networks for anything that will &amp;quot;assist&amp;quot; in &amp;quot;obtaining intelligence related to security&amp;quot;. The warrant allows surveillance, as well as &amp;quot;addition, deletion or alteration of data&amp;quot;. Disclosing that warrant&amp;#x27;s existence is punishable by up to 10 years in jail. This is without even considering the reciprocal spying possibilities of the Five Eyes network.&lt;p&gt;There is no equivalent in Australia to the US fourth amendment. Even illegally gathered evidence can be used in a trial depending on the discretion of the judge. [1]&lt;p&gt;If you think &amp;quot;we don&amp;#x27;t participate in blanket surveillance&amp;quot; is an acceptable response to that legal reality, I ask you to consider what you would think of a company that, when asked if they store passwords in cleartext, respond &amp;quot;yes, but we don&amp;#x27;t look at them.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/bills/s969_first-senate/toc_pdf/1417820.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;parlinfo.aph.gov.au&amp;#x2F;parlInfo&amp;#x2F;download&amp;#x2F;legislation&amp;#x2F;bil...&lt;/a&gt;
[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1245&amp;amp;context=facpubs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;scholarship.law.wm.edu&amp;#x2F;cgi&amp;#x2F;viewcontent.cgi?article=12...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Confidentiality at FastMail</title><url>http://blog.fastmail.com/2014/12/15/security-confidentiality/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>moe</author><text>&lt;i&gt;We have spelled out in our privacy policy and public communications that we don’t participate in blanket surveillance. We are an Australian company, and to participate in such programs would be in violation of Australian law.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are you really this naive?&lt;p&gt;Australia is a member of Five Eyes[1]. Your local laws don&amp;#x27;t apply to intelligence agencies.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Five_Eyes&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>