I think all hobbyists and providers should go to protonmail and sign up asap.

It is a secure encrypted server located in Switzerland.  And free, as well.  The King County investigation served search warrants on yahoo accounts and yahoo of course coughed up the data and emails.

But to discuss / disclose them in open forum isn't the best place to do so.  

(I'm not a vip, nor planning to pen a new review.)

"Seek and ye shall find...

I spent about $50 a year on VPN that I use for browsing all the time...well worth the money. Google email will be a better choice as they are big enough to not be a pushover...and they have to maintain their reputation for privacy...

Google acquiesced to plenty of warrants, their servers aren't in Russia, China, nor Cuba; majority of their servers are in the US which will fall under US laws. (or not depending on whom or which department you inquire. (fairly sure NSA have their hooks on "most" if not all communication, whether they would share their 'findings with other agencies is foggy at best.)  

"This world we 'live in'" is not high up on federal food chain for them to exert any strength in peeping." doesn’t mean they don't have an eye on us, even from afar. If entrusting someone else with information is a big deal, perhaps a lockbox with one "key" where you store all of your information from passwords, money, other valuables, deeds, will, ...."  

In this day and age, if you don't trust someone sometimes, then you would not trust anybody anytime

Google's reputation for PRIVACY??? Bah ha ha ha ha ha!