You're saying that this isn't worth doing because they still have to keep some minimal amount of information about their customers in order to do business? You're saying everyday people should contract with a company in Liberia to route their traffic through Estonia?
That's ridiculous. The point of this is not make it easy to evade justice. Remember, we do want the police to be able to gather evidence against criminals when it's warranted. It's to prevent mass surveillance of the population by the state. Having communications companies that minimize the data they gather about their customers and refuse to hand it over to the state without a warrant is a huge step forward in protecting the civil liberties of ordinary citizens. That's the point.
The point of this is not make it easy to evade justice. It's to prevent mass surveillance of the population by the state.
It's not clear to me that we can prevent mass surveillance without making it easier for criminals to evade justice.
I still think we should work to prevent mass surveillance, not because making things tough for law enforcement is not a problem, but because mass surveillance is a much bigger problem.
The point is that the government has the ability with the cooperation of the telcos to track everything.
This telco is claiming that they have the technical means to prevent that - while in fact they have no technical difference (other than storing your email encrypted) than any other.
If all they are claiming is that they are good guys and wouldn't hand over your data if ordered then you have no more security than all the other telcos who also said that - either because they were lying or they were ordered to say so.
If your risk model is that the telco will cooperate with the US government then the solution is a telco who has no reason to do so.
This telco is claiming that they have the technical means to prevent that - while in fact they have no technical difference (other than storing your email encrypted) than any other.
That isn't my interpretation.
They seem to be saying that they will do everything technically and legally possible to prevent tracking.
That's a significant difference from the current situation where telcos hand over information whenever the government asks, even if not ordered to do so.
That's ridiculous. The point of this is not make it easy to evade justice. Remember, we do want the police to be able to gather evidence against criminals when it's warranted. It's to prevent mass surveillance of the population by the state. Having communications companies that minimize the data they gather about their customers and refuse to hand it over to the state without a warrant is a huge step forward in protecting the civil liberties of ordinary citizens. That's the point.