Lavabit

Lavabit suspended service after the U.S. government demanded its Secure Sockets Layer private keys, which could have exposed the communications of its customers. Founder Ladar Levison chose to close the service rather than comply in a way he said would compromise user privacy. [Lavabit's own 2017 release summarizes the shutdown](https://lavabit.com/files/Lavabit.Press.Release.20170704.pdf).

Yes. Lavabit later confirmed that the 2013 investigation targeted Edward Snowden, whose email account was hosted by the service. The case involved a demand for keys that could have affected roughly 410,000 customers, not only one account. [Lavabit described the case in a 2016 court brief](https://lavabit.com/files/Lavabit.Press.Release.20160620.pdf).

Yes. Lavabit announced a return to the market in 2017 with its Dark Internet Mail Environment, or DIME, and related open-source tools. The relaunch was intended to provide stronger end-to-end protection for email content, metadata, and transport. [Lavabit announced the relaunch and DIME project](https://lavabit.com/files/Lavabit.Press.Release.20170704.pdf).

Magma was Lavabit's open-source DIME-oriented mail server, Volcano was a planned DIME mail client, and Flow was intended for secure traditional email with common mail clients. These names belong to Lavabit's 2017 product plan, so they should not be confused with ordinary Gmail or Outlook features. [Lavabit described the products in its 2017 release](https://lavabit.com/files/Lavabit.Press.Release.20170704.pdf).