Two American ISPs (Lavabit and Silent Circle) have announced they are shutting down and laying off all their workers, because they have been hit by NSA subpoenas that also have gag orders attached to them so they are not even allowed to talk about it.
AFAIK,
Silent Circle hasn't received any NSA subpoenas or gag orders yet, but decided to
discontinue their Silent Mail service anyway, so their clientele can transition before Silent Circle is treated to the full Monty. Beyond that, I fully agree with your assessment of the situation. It's plain crazy, but unfortunately nothing new in the US: I'm sure it's been said before that the current anti-terrorism hysteria has had predecessors in the
Red Scares, but it bears repeating. The one 'positive' thing in all this is perhaps the fact that the current attack on privacy and freedom is not discriminatory, but hits everybody equally. I guess that's progress, of sorts...
