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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)
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."
Dear Australia,
We love and support anti-encryption laws.
See you soon,
-Hackers and Malicious State Actors Everywhere.
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.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
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.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
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.
the greatest nemesis of the State
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)
Enjoy my collection of hairpulling painal mother-daughter lesbian strapon porn and my disposable prepaid gift debit cards and whatever other information you think is useful from my Fastmail email account. I didnt leave because of you; on the contrary, i left because the free service expires too soon.
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.
How many customers they have exactly?
How many of them complained exactly?
How many of them closed accounts because of the new law exactly?
The point is, maybe just 1 in million complained? How do we know? Where is the data/facts/evidence/proof?
But, what really important is all citizens & companies need to respect laws of their government & country!!!
Making all emails encrypted would benefit general public very little, but it would benefit all criminals immensely!!!
They had email back in Victorian times - wow
If you don't know the difference between Australia and Austria you probably should STFU.
As somebody who looks after mail servers a skill deemed worthless by cloud fanboys how is the cloud dream living up to reality?
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.
Dundee... will... be... back
Well I guess on the one hand it's a good thing that this nonsense is contained to it's own separate continent; we can use Australia as a negative example when (not IF, but WHEN) their 'anti-encryption' bullshit blows up in their faces, proving what everyone has been saying (saying? More like screaming in their ears!) all along. Maybe, just maybe, when that happens, the rest of the fucktarded politicians of the world will wake up.
I was a user since 2002. Fantastic service, but I cannot abide what the Australian government have done. What is it with all the western governments feeling the need to have access to everything? This is why I buy certain things in cash and in face-to-face transactions. Booze, tobacco, firearms. I have a squeaky-clean record, but it's just none of anyone's business what I do as long as I'm not violating the law. Insurance companies, too, are tracking the daylights out of people from all angles, hoping to find something to raise your rates. I don't use social media tied to my real name or real IP address because I know what they're up to. My life, my rules.
Anti-encryption laws and a Victorian company running a email service?
They are even more outdated than I thought.
"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,"
Is he trying to claim that the right to privacy has not changed in Australia? That it is all in peoples mind?
Does he really think that "data protected by government regulation" can be as good as "technically impossible to access data" and that all those people have it wrong?
note: That his customers are leaving for all the wrong reasons, only prove they are technically clueless. But it also proves they do care.
We had someone leave where I work, and left his forwarding address as Melbourne, Austria. Not sure he ever found the place.
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 ?
Go well
Run your favorite Linux and openVPN to the rest of the world and lets australia burn.