Slashdot Mirror
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.
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)
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.
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.
Pretty sure the majority of the people in the US know they are getting spied on. The problem is nobody cares. They just keep staring at their screens regardless.
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.