The reason we recommend switching to neomailbox.ch addresses is that the ".net" domain space is controlled by Verisign, which is a US company, whereas the ".ch" domain space is administered by SWITCH Information Technology Services, a Swiss company, and is subject to Swiss laws, not US ones. Therefore, switching to neomailbox.ch addresses is an important component of keeping your email service outside of the USA.

"Surveillance is the business model of the Internet," Schneier told attendees. "We build systems that spy on people in exchange for services. Corporations call it marketing."

[...]

"The NSA woke up and said, corporations are spying on the Internet, let's get ourselves a copy,'" Schneier said. Most NSA surveillance "piggybacks" what the companies are already doing, he said.

The government didn't tell anyone they have to carry around a tracking device, but people now carry mobile devices. The government doesn't require users to notify any agency about their relationships. Users will tell Facebook soon enough, Schneier noted. "Fundamentally, we have reached the golden age of surveillance because we are all being surveilled ubiquitously."

Would this be worth it for an intelligence agency? Since a handful of primes are so widely reused, the payoff, in terms of connections they could decrypt, would be enormous. Breaking a single, common 1024-bit prime would allow NSA to passively decrypt connections to two-thirds of VPNs and a quarter of all SSH servers globally. Breaking a second 1024-bit prime would allow passive eavesdropping on connections to nearly 20% of the top million HTTPS websites. In other words, a one-time investment in massive computation would make it possible to eavesdrop on trillions of encrypted connections.

After a lot of reading I don't think there is any email service anywhere that is actually secure. The metadata on email is too extensive and the reach of the NSA (et al) is too broad. If you have to secure the contents of your email you're going to have to encrypt it yourself. If you just want to get away from advertisers deusexcaelo has complied a nice list of email services. but don't think any of them are "private". They're not. Email is inherently insecure.

Do you think that switching to your browser's Private browsing mode or Icognito mode will make you anonymous?

Sorry to disappoint you, You are wrong!. Everyone can track you. Lets check it out yourself. Just type your name below.

Zom - whitelabel fork of ChatSecure focused on hyper usability and total awesomeness! https://zom.im

Sending an email message is like sending a postcard, says scientist Andy Yen in this thought-provoking talk: Anyone can read it. Yet encryption, the technology that protects the privacy of email communication, does exist. It's just that until now it has been difficult to install and a hassle to use. Showing a demo of an email program he designed with colleagues at CERN, Yen argues that encryption can be made simple to the point of becoming the default option, providing true email privacy to all.

Bitmessage is a P2P communications protocol used to send encrypted messages to another person or to many subscribers. It is decentralized and trustless, meaning that you need-not inherently trust any entities like root certificate authorities. It uses strong authentication which means that the sender of a message cannot be spoofed, and it aims to hide "non-content" data, like the sender and receiver of messages, from passive eavesdroppers like those running warrantless wiretapping programs.

Zom is a place where friends can be friends, and you can always speak your mind freely. Free & open-source with privacy features that help keep you connected, no matter where you are. Once connected on Zom, you can send free text and voice messages, share photos, stickers and more!

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere is planning a major limitation of privacy rights in Germany, say data protection groups. Germans will no longer have the right to know what data about them is being collected.

Add all this up, and it's easy to see why every cellphone manufacturer just opts for an off-the-shelf baseband processor and associated software. This does mean that each and every feature and smartphone has a piece of software that always runs (when the device is on), but that is essentially a black box. Whenever someone does dive into baseband software, many bugs and issues are found, which raises the question just how long this rather dubious situation can continue.