PayPal closes Protonmail's account because they thought encryption was illegal

Morons. Morons. Morons. Too often idiots act out on what they think is legal or illegal and not what actually is. Nosy neighbors do it, cops do it, soccer moms do it, now banking folk are doing it:

But Geneva-headquartered ProtonMail, which is keen to rent servers and get the product out of beta, hit a snag on Monday when it discovered PayPal had frozen its account.

However, when ProtonMail was trying to find out why the block had been put in place, a PayPal representative apparently asked whether the startup had sought government approval for offering encrypted services.

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When we pressed the PayPal representative on the phone for further details, he questioned whether ProtonMail is legal and if we have government approval to encrypt emails. We are not sure which government PayPal is referring to, but even the 4th Amendment of the U.S. constitution guarantees: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures….”

Shades of PayPal cutting off Wikileaks or just authoritarian loving stupidity?

In the end things were set right:

Restrictions on the account were lifted on Tuesday, with ProtonMail crediting the reversal to media coverage,

How dare they keep secrets from the US spy agencies! Is it legal to offer privacy? Wow, what a world we live in these days. Interesting times.

Signed up from Protonmail email address about a month ago. Glad to hear they're moving to actually let people use those addresses! There really is a sea change coming. Just look, 5 years ago only conspiracy nuts were concerned about government snooping.