My ProtonMail invite came through this past weekend! I actually forgot about it until the movie thread bump... Just got done activating, and it has a surprising good, intuitive interface. My motivation to completely transition isn't there yet. The service is still in beta and they are actively trying to break it to find potential exploits. It is a step in the right direction, in my opinion. Maybe the competition will follow at some point. It will be difficult, they had to build out their data-center in Switzerland to get around various international data retention requirements. https://protonmail.ch/pages/security-details Reserve your email address: https://protonmail.ch/invite Original Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/protonmail
ProtonMail is the only legitimate encrypted email provider. Everything else is super shady and you're better off dealing with snooping. There is always a chance the whole thing was a NWO backed sham. But in that case you're back to square one, and no worse off. I don't think directly. A lot of the 'usual sites' have started using CloudFlare CDN, bringing them under US jurisdiction in a round about way. Your IP is recorded on the CF cache server, assuming you don't get Error 502 all day. I tried CloudFlare with this site, but their service blows chunks.
The encryption is largely meaningless unless the recipient is also using ProtonMail. Plus, Switzerland's government isn't likely to have a total "hands-off" approach for all eternity. All it would take is some sort of localized problem of national importance and all bets would be off.
Technically you can send an encrypted email anywhere with a decryption key. I tried a few test runs yesterday. Still waiting to see if anybody figured out their decryption key from the hints I provided. This will going to have a high failure rate. I suspect the key will need to be pre-shared beforehand for most contacts. Some will probably never wrap their heads around it. For practical purposes you are correct. You're only as secure as your weakest contact. Also correct about Switzerland. But if they weren't phased by 2 world wars, I think we'll be ok for the next few years.
I just signed up for this because I got an email saying me requested address was now available. No idea if I'll use it.
I've been trying to switch for 2 years... but my contacts have gotten fragmented. Some people email me at PM while others continue to send it to my old Gmail. I prefer the simplistic and clean layout beyond any real care about the encryption. The only bummer is the app 'loses' it's saved un/pw frequently. That said the new revamped Outlook mail has also taken a simplistic clean look. But they've also started taking the "I know how to sort better than you" approach like Gmail.