> Running your own SMTP server at home is a pain in the ass, so it will never be widely adopted. It is, but it doesn't have to be. Someone could make a <$100 d

> Running your own SMTP server at home is a pain in the ass, so it will never be widely adopted. It is, but it doesn't have to be. Someone could make a <$100 device which has a power backup for running through power outages and a backup network connection via the cellular network, which should provide high enough uptime for all practical purposes. Messages between mail servers are encrypted most of the time, more and more so every year [1]. This is a technical solution for a legal problem, though. I'm not sure if I understand the system you are proposing, but email protocols seem secure enough now as they are now, it's just the third party principle that doesn't align with the obvious expectations of privacy in mail [2]. To me, it's pretty clear that my email account is like a PO box. Just because my email is held by a third party doesn't make it any less private than being delivered to my home, just as mail arriving at a "third-party" PO box isn't all that different from my mailbox. 1. https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/saferemail/ https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/saferemail/ 2. http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/30/google-will-also-stop-scanning-google-apps-inboxes-for-ads/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/30/google-will-also-stop-scann...