The Secure email provider ‘Lavabit’ and preferred service for PRISM leaker Edward Snowden decided to shut down after 10 years to avoid being complicit in crimes against the American people. The U.S. Government obtained a secret court order demanding private SSL key from Lavabit, which would have allowed the FBI to wiretap the service’s users. When Edward Snowden was revealed to be one of those users in July, Ladar received the court orders to comply, intended to trace the Internet IP address of a particular Lavabit user.
Source: https://thehackernews.com/2013/10/fbi-demands-ssl-keys-from-secure-email_2.html