Small E-mail Providers Commit Business Suicide

In this NYTimes article, Two small e-mail providers committed business suicide and destroyed data to protect their users information from government surveillance. In recent weeks the topic of discuss has been centered around U.S. citizens outrage towards the unnecessary government surveillance of private data. One company listed was called Lavabit, and reported was the e-mail carrier that Snowden used. According to the article the company's owner Ladar Levison said, “I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot," and added, “This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without Congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.” This raises concern on the topic of why is it that the larger companies are complying with the government while the smaller ones are choosing to shutdown. The article explains that a larger company, such as Facebook, has too many users and its users would be outraged if it simply "shutdown." But that these smaller providers are able to fight back and say rather than sharing its data it will close. But the closure of these smaller companies in response to government crack down on surveillance laws is reigning in the circle of providers, causing a monopoly like dominance of larger companies that cannot deny government data searches. This is very upsetting to me since one of the greatest freedoms in the U.S. is a right to privacy. I do not think that wanting to protect one's right to privacy means a person has something to hide from the government either.