US 'snoop-op' privacy breaches forces legal news website to shut down

A legal news website that publishes information on technology and patent legal cases is set for a closure citing inability to operate under the current US surveillance policies.

The award-winning Groklaw website, founded in 2003, promises its sources anonymity but now it is doubtful if contributors can be ensured of secrecy or can be shielded from forced exposure.

Groklaw's founder, Pamela Jones said that cited the alleged US practice of screening emails from abroad and storing messages enciphered or otherwise thought to contain secret meaning for five years, BBC reports.

Although, the site gave no prior indication that it might close, legal experts have been saddened by the development and worried that a site like Groklaw was shutting down.

A professor of law at Boston University, Michael Meurer said that the site had been a great source for information about the latest developments in technology law and policy and several of his students launched their research projects based on what they learned reading Groklaw.

London-based patent lawyer Andrew Alton, of Urquhart-Dykes and Lord said that there is a danger that by encouraging people to contribute, those individuals might be incriminating themselves, and hence it is understandable why the site cannot continue.

The report added that following revelations of the alleged 'snoop-ops', two encrypted email services - designed so that no-one other than the recipient could read the messages - have also closed, which includes Lavabit.