[url]http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2014/07/01/protonmail-paypal/1[/url]
[QUOTE][B]ProtonMail, a secure email start-up founded in 2013 by scientists at CERN in Switzerland, has claimed that eBay-owned payment processor PayPal has bowed to government pressure and locked its crowd-funding account - and in doing so has threatened the future of the project.
[/B]The brainchild of Andy Yen, Jason Stockman and Wei Sun, ProtonMail is a web-based email service which offers centralised cryptography management. Its promise is that any device, including tablets and smartphones, can use the system to send and receive entirely secure messages with none of the complexity normally associated with public key cryptosystems such as key management and distribution. Combined with its hosting in Switzerland, which has impressively strong privacy laws, the team behind it claim it's the perfect answer to recent revelations regarding the NSA and associates' tendencies to snoop outside their original charters.
It's a promise that has considerable backing: a crowd-funding campaign with a $100,000 goal was smashed with the project currently sitting on a whopping $251,721. Unfortunately, that cash is now locked as the result of PayPal freezing the team's account. '[I]Like many others, we have all heard the PayPal horror stories, but didn’t actually think it would happen to us on our campaign since PayPal promised, very recently, to improve their policies. Unfortunately, it seems those were hollow promises as ProtonMail is now the latest in a long string of crowdfunding campaigns to be hit with account freezes,' Yen wrote in a [URL="https://protonmail.ch/blog/paypal-freezes-protonmail-campaign-funds/"]blog post[/URL] on the matter.[/I][/QUOTE]
I find it absolutely absurd that Paypal in any way, shape or form has the right to freeze hundreds and thousands of dollars just like that.
They're like a bank but with no regulation, what could possibly go wrong?!
[QUOTE=RayvenQ;45262430]They're like a bank but with no regulation, what could possibly go wrong?![/QUOTE]No regulation does not mean above the law though.
Better call J.G. Wentworth, he can save the day
The GCW-Zero project also had trouble with these fuckers. They simply locked up the account, people had to ask for refunds and go through all that shit and redo their purchases via google pay or something.
Needless to say, even with most of the damage undone, it was still a major pain in the ass for everyone, simply because they felt like they should lock the account.
[QUOTE=itisjuly;45262462]No regulation does not mean above the law though.[/QUOTE]
Sure, but they're not affected by bank laws
Good to see NSA playing dirty.
On a serious note, can't they go the open-source route like with PGP (As PGP seems to have been robust for the past decade, due to community scrutiny)?
[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;45262591]
On a serious note, can't they go the open-source route like with PGP (As PGP seems to have been robust for the past decade, due to community scrutiny)?[/QUOTE]
On that note, I don't know why I should trust any of these crowdfunded encrypted chat/email/file transfer services that seem to have popped up recently if there are open-source alternatives that have existed for far longer.
[QUOTE=Matoking;45262654]On that note, I don't know why I should trust any of these crowdfunded encrypted chat/email/file transfer services that seem to have popped up recently if there are open-source alternatives that have existed for far longer.[/QUOTE]
Most of the pre-made builds of PGP are currently licensed by Symantec. However there are some free [URL="https://www.gnupg.org/index.html"]GNU binaries available[/URL].
[QUOTE=Riller;45262420]I find it absolutely absurd that Paypal in any way, shape or form has the right to freeze hundreds and thousands of dollars just like that.[/QUOTE]
Not technically being a bank goes both ways though
Even though they've never had trouble with that so far
This is a terrible article.
[quote]claimed that eBay-owned payment processor PayPal has bowed to government pressure[/quote]
What happened was that their account was frozen (as PayPal usually does with accounts that get extraordinary cash flow) and they called up PayPal to get it back.
The clerk on the phone doubted the legality of the project, asking them if they had "government approval" to encrypt emails.
What happened here was PayPal's auto-ban system running wild coupled with their customer service rep being a total idiot. A sign of their shitty customer service, sure, but for once not a government conspiracy. [url=https://protonmail.ch/blog/paypal-freezes-protonmail-campaign-funds/]The situation has already been resolved[/url] (no doubt in part due to the massive media attention).
PayPal is a bank in Europe, since laws here prevent anyone handling more than a certain (low) amount of money/store credits/whatever per customer without being one.
They are registered in Luxembourg and all banking regulations should apply for local customers unless they did some seriously weird money shifting across the ocean (which is unlikely due to customs/taxes).
Paypal machinations are obvious, and it has nothing to do with "suspicious accounts".
Especially ironic considering they're about only one step above crooks themselves.
Have had nothing but bullshit from them since day one, and regret ever signing up.
[QUOTE=FurrehFaux;45262482]Better call J.G. Wentworth, he can save the day[/QUOTE]
[video=youtube;HX0fIi3H-es]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX0fIi3H-es[/video]
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