"Hushmail supplied cleartext copies of private email messages associated with several addresses at the request of law enforcement agencies under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the United States.; e.g. in the case of U.S. v. Tyler Stumbo. In addition, the contents of emails between Hushmail addresses were analyzed, and 12 CDs were supplied to U.S. authorities."
"The court records show that the FBI sought Lavabit's Transport Layer Security (TLS/SSL) private key. Levison objected, saying that the key would allow the government to access communications by all 400,000 customers of Lavabit. He also offered to add code to his servers that would provide the information required just for the target of the order. The court rejected this offer because it would require the government to trust Levison and stated that just because the government could access all customers' communication did not mean they would be legally permitted to do so. Lavabit was ordered to provide the SSL key in machine readable format."
Parent doesn't seem to be arguing that these providers are anonymous, just that you get what you pay for in customer service. They explicitly say that end to end encryption (ie client side PGP) is required for privacy.
Then his argument is even more flawed, because one can just as well pay for Gmail or Outlook and use PGP with them, without exposing himself to vulnerabilities of smaller email providers.
You are not paying for customer service, you are just becoming a paid customer[1]. And then you can compare which email provider treats its paid customers best. For me, the best treatment is when a product is so well thought-through, that I never need to contact anyone about it.
ProtonMail also offers a free inbox with a way to pay for additional storage[1]. Would you also think, that by upgrading your ProtonMail storage you are not paying for email service? The only difference is, that Gmail doesn't limit its features for the free users. It's just a different business model.
You are probably joking.
> hushmail.com
"Hushmail supplied cleartext copies of private email messages associated with several addresses at the request of law enforcement agencies under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the United States.; e.g. in the case of U.S. v. Tyler Stumbo. In addition, the contents of emails between Hushmail addresses were analyzed, and 12 CDs were supplied to U.S. authorities."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hushmail#Compromises_to_email_...
> lavabit.com
"The court records show that the FBI sought Lavabit's Transport Layer Security (TLS/SSL) private key. Levison objected, saying that the key would allow the government to access communications by all 400,000 customers of Lavabit. He also offered to add code to his servers that would provide the information required just for the target of the order. The court rejected this offer because it would require the government to trust Levison and stated that just because the government could access all customers' communication did not mean they would be legally permitted to do so. Lavabit was ordered to provide the SSL key in machine readable format."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavabit#Suspension_and_gag_ord...
> protonmail.com
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18010648