If you are using one of the Big Tech's free email programs, such as Google's Gmail, or Microsoft's Yahoo or Hotmail, you are exposing your private communication to prying eyes, including the U.S. Government.

As I have written previously, hosting your own domain name and having your own private email is a much better option.

There are also companies that advertise private, secure email services.

PC Magazine has an article that evaluates many of these 3rd party email services:

The Best Email Encryption Services for 2023

One option that PC Magazine does not mention, however, is Lavabit, which is the secure email service that Edward Snowden was using when he left the NSA.

Ladar Levison, the owner of Lavabit, received an order from the FBI to turn over its Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) private keys, which would have allowed the FBI to not only access Snowden's emails, but also all the other emails of Lavabit's clients, about 400,000 at the time.

Not only would the FBI have been able to retrieve Lavabit's customers' emails, they could have intercepted their emails retrieving things like passwords, credit card information, and pretty much anything they wanted.

Ladar decided to protect his clients, by shutting down his business and removing all his clients' accounts, effectively putting himself out of business after building one of the most successful private email services for over 10 years.

Then he "turned over the keys" to the FBI.