On Gag Orders and Swedish Law
Recently we have all, thanks to Edward Snowden, become aware of the security issues inherent in software from US companies. The Government of the United States of America have legal instruments to force vendors to comply with state orders, e.g. install back doors, and make it illegal for them to reveal this to their customers.
In practice, any government can try to persuade any company to do anything by using bribes or threats, but only in a few countries can the government legally prevent companies and their employees from talking publicly about it. The USA is one such country, and from the leaked information available it seems that they employ it liberally.
Take for example Lavabit, a US company that provided encrypted email services to its customers. It, supposedly like many others, was approached by US authorities and required to install a back door for them. Unlike most other companies, the owner of the company, Ladar Levison, chose to close down Lavabit rather than betray his customers, and he may now face prosecution for this decision. We know about this only because Levison took great personal loss and risk instead of complying. We do not know about all the other companies that simply complied, and they all risk prosecution if they resist or go public. Levison says that he would “strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.” [infoworld.com]
In Sweden it works differently. Here the government is also involved in massspying through the FRA and the Swedish police demands automated access to all telecommunication data, but we know this, not through anonymous leaks or heroic whistle-blowing, but by the government passing overt legislation permitting it, or from the people involved raising their voices and speaking out, e.g. by recording private talks with the security police and releasing it to the public. However, when this happens there are no legal instruments the government can use to retaliate. This allows Swedish companies to uphold their customers’ privacy without risk. If approached by government agencies, Swedish companies risk nothing by refusing to comply and/or going public.
Protect your data
If you have data that needs protection, you can rest assured that products from BlockMaster will contain no back doors. It is not in our interest, and our government cannot force us. We offer managed hardware-encrypted USB devices that will protect your data on the go, and ShieldShare that will allow you to securely share files with end-to-end encryption where only the clients hold the encryption keys.