"You can delete the private key from our server (but we recommend this only for advanced users, your private key is always encrypted on our server anyway" This sounds pretty similar to Lavabit. The server stores your emails encrypted, but they're decrypted for you when you login, using your password as the key to decrypt your private key. The difference (I think, I never used Lavabit) is that you can retrieve the private key from Countermail and then ask them to delete it. It would be even nicer if they let you upload your public key so they never see the private key. You'd still have to trust them not to copy plaintext as it's coming in, which depending on how you think about it might be equivalent to them having a private key to your mail in the first place. In all these 'secure email' providers, they all have the same problem: they see incoming plaintext, and could be compelled to store it/record it. It's not their fault, they do the best they can, it's just how email works. -tom