Yes, I have pondered the moral implications of my startup.
Cryptography comes with a price: The bad guys get to use it too. Where my startup is concerned, this means that organized crime would have access to TLA-quality secure backups (and by "backing up" data from one system and "restoring" it to another, secure communication, too).
In the end I decided that since (a) criminals would need to pay for the service (which makes tracking them down easier), and (b) I'm going to be logging IP addresses, the extent to which this would assist criminals is fairly limited; and that the legitimate needs people have for secure backups far outweigh the potential for abuse.
You must also consider the potential for abuse by governments or other individuals against your users. This is particularly relevant to online backups. You aren't facing a big ethical problem at all if you ask me. Privacy is a basis of US laws, and all that.
Cryptography comes with a price: The bad guys get to use it too. Where my startup is concerned, this means that organized crime would have access to TLA-quality secure backups (and by "backing up" data from one system and "restoring" it to another, secure communication, too).
In the end I decided that since (a) criminals would need to pay for the service (which makes tracking them down easier), and (b) I'm going to be logging IP addresses, the extent to which this would assist criminals is fairly limited; and that the legitimate needs people have for secure backups far outweigh the potential for abuse.