You have a really valid point, and I appreciate the feedback. (If we're way off the mark for how many people would use this, that's obviously a good thing to kn

You have a really valid point, and I appreciate the feedback. (If we're way off the mark for how many people would use this, that's obviously a good thing to know.) PGP encryption can indeed work with any mail service but it's way too cumbersome for the average person, and "deleting any non-encrypted incoming email" wouldn't really be sufficient--to my knowledge there's no public data on the amount of time between Google flagging an item as being deleted and the time where it actually disappears from all disks but due to backups, etc, I would expect it to be a really long time. Either way, for external (non-gmail) messages unless both parties are using PGP the whole exchange can easily be intercepted at any point along the way (users are connected to gmail over SSL but external email servers typically aren't). Many people send sensitive information over email without any hesitation (eg. it's probably the most commonly used method for exchanging passwords) and the amount of ways your benign emails could be used against you (in court or otherwise) is probably scarier than you think. You don't need to be plotting a violent overthrow of the government for your words to be used against you. EDIT: FWIW, it's really hard to talk about this stuff without sounding like the guy on the street corner with a placard. I don't think a rogue employee at Google is going to destroy your life, nor do I expect the thought police to someday arrest you based on your email history. I do believe that we have a legitimate right to privacy in our communications which just isn't being met today, and I think that if more people were aware of the current reality they would agree. Protecting our data is ultimately our own responsibility, and I think there are better options for "normal" people than what's currently out there.