I apologize for that, you're right that I'm implicitly assuming some Americanisms. Yes, as a European your email is always at theoretical risk of interception

I apologize for that, you're right that I'm implicitly assuming some Americanisms. Yes, as a European your email is always at theoretical risk of interception by NSA if it transits U.S. borders. Although even there the law is murky; foreigners don't lose property rights just because they visit the U.S. for instance, and the Fourth Amendment applies to foreigners within the boundaries of the U.S. So if you host your email on your own hardware, within the U.S., it's not as if the government has the authority to go rip your server off the shelves without a warrant. They can intercept your traffic between your home in Europe and the server in the U.S., but that's why we have encryption, you should always have been assuming people are snooping that anyways. On the other hand hosting email abroad from your home nation may put you at risk of European intelligence agencies warrantlessly intercepting them (even the German BND appears to have that legal authority), so I suppose that's a risk factor you'll have to balance on your own.