Lavabit was (and is, they're back in business as of 2017) physically located at imperial dead center, in a state where most people were fully supportive of their country's imperial ambitions. It was naive for its founder (or its customers) to expect a different result. They paid a high price for that. I think it's similarly naive to expect a different result in the case of ProtonMail. CH isn't an island. It's at least as tightly coupled with the global economy as TX. It has longstanding treaty obligations that come with that, including some covering criminal law enforcement (e.g. an extradition treaty with the US). See this Forbes piece about what Lavabit's founder said about email some time ago: Kashmir Hill. "Lavabit's Ladar Levison: 'If You Knew What I Know About Email, You Might Not Use It'". _Forbes_, 9 August 2013, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/08/09/lavabits....