I'm not bashing the USA in general, I'm sorry if it sounds like it (it's quite hard to write a catchy comment in this vein and get the tone right, perhaps I got the balance wrong this time.)

However, I am pointing out something that a lot of non-US citizens on HN have been saying lots over the past few weeks; setting up an email service that is outside the US (for the purpose of trying to avoid PRISM surveillance) is nontrivial, and while it would be great if this app were the answer to that, it sadly isn't.

I'm all for the US justice system doing what it's supposed to and having the supreme court rule on the constitutionality of PRISM! Then it will no longer be valid to generalise that all US-hosted services are bad news for privacy.

Also keep in mind, most of the people you'll want to send mail to will still be using email providers located in the US. So the messages will just be NSA'ed when they're delivered, instead of when they're sent.

On the other hand, if you have specific counterparties and you can get them to switch to the same thing you're using, just use TorMail, or run a VPS somewhere where you both have SSH keys and use it as a dead-drop, or whatever. "The solution must involve SMTP and POP/IMAP" is only relevant when you're communicating with unauthenticated peers... at which point, you'd better not say anything important anyway. ;)

I'm 99.9% certain that the Supreme Court would rule such programs Constitutional.

If true, then there is clearly no real balance of powers in the US; PRISM clearly violates the original spirit of the 4th amendment.

If noone is standing up for the constitution anymore, then the legislature + executive have taken control.