What about people not using gmail but sending email to a gmail users? Those don't gain anything here.

I actually host my own email but every time I send a message to somebody using one of these webmails it gets indexed and monetized.

But I would argue that it's a technical problem first and foremost, email security is mostly a joke. If I need to send sensitive things through emails I can always use PGP to actually protect it, instead of relying on the goodwill of the email provider not to peek into the message. If people really valued their privacy they'd be doing something similar.

I would rather pay and do not share anything with Google (or for that matter all of Google's partners who can purchase our data)

There are many options to pay for email, fastmail just for one. Do you use one of them?

And how exactly will I escape Google's data collection when Fastmail uses GA for analytics?

....script type="text/javascript" src="/static/scripts/ga.js....

Run a broad-spectrum blocker like uBlock Origin? Access your fastmail from an interface other than their web interface?

Ok so there is more involved than just use Fastmail, as it was suggested. Thanks for confirming.

> many options to pay for email, fastmail just for one

That’s the marketing site; the actual app where you read your email definitely doesn’t have Google Analytics.

Google isn't just an e-mail service, really.

But… you don’t really have to use Gmail to use most of Google’s other products, just as you don’t really have to use (actively) Google+ to use other Google products either.

Unfortunately no. You are going to be tracked whereever you go and it has GA. The reason why Google can stop reading your emails is because they have a global network now that can track you better.

But imagine you use an Android phone, for instance. There's a whole bunch of integrated stuff that works well together that wouldn't if you had a Google account and then kept your e-mail somewhere else. It's not really a 1:1 comparison.

You can, it's called Google Apps for Business.

Not to be pedantic, but it's called "G Suite" nowadays.

> all of Google's partners who can purchase our data

I'm pretty sure that's the empty set.