Re: Dear Courts. No. Go away.
The argument being, put some code in that captures this user's password. There is no need to mathematically break the encryption.
This is entirely within the power of Tutanota. They just don't want to - for very obvious reasons.
I have to say though, that this is one of those cases where you almost have a bit of sympathy for (some of) the Police. They're asking for Tutanota to provide data from for a specific, named account, presumably with the correct paperwork. That's no more objectionable than getting a search warrant for premises (the previous ruling from a Regional Court asking for an actual backdoor notwithstanding, which this Court correctly struck down).
This isn't a self-service backdoor that they can poke into at will, nor a dragnet data feed and it's not entirely unreasonable to expect Tutanota to make reasonable efforts to assist a lawful investigation. Without wishing to invoke "think of the children", if you've got scumbags engaging in serious organised crime - whether that's people trafficking, child abuse, narcotics, or something else then service providers have both a moral and legal obligation to help Police so far as practicably possible, in much the same way as a bank (should) diligently protect your financial data up to the point they're served with a valid warrant.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
