Mega Developing “Cutting Edge” Encrypted Email Service

After the NSA’s top secret spying programs were brought to light, by former CIA technical analyst Edward Snowden, many people are started speaking out against widespread surveillance of online activity. The documents leaked by Snowden reveal programs that are capable of tapping in to Skype audio and video calls, monitoring internet history and even accessing the content of emails. Lavabit, an encrypted email provider that Snowden used, recently shut down because apparently its owner and operator didn’t want to become “complicit in crimes against the American people.” It is believed that rather than comply with a surveillance order, Lavabit chose to shut down. Another secure email provider, Silent Mail, also shut down because it saw the “writing on the wall.” So there’s evidently a void needs to be filled, and that’s where Kim Dotcom’s Mega comes in.

Mega CEO Vikram Kumar says that they have been doing “very hard” work in order to develop a secure email service. He says that since the service is going to be based on true end-to-end encryption, its becoming hard to provide features that users expect from a conventional email provider. Kumar says that they are doing “cutting edge stuff.” Kim Dotcom, the founder of Mega says that the company won’t retain decryption keys for customer accounts, thus making itself unable to read user’s email, and as a result, being unable to comply with a surveillance order. No word as yet on when this encrypted email service will go live.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: Edward Snowden, mega