Lavabit
Description
Lavabit is a free e-mail service founded in June of 2004 (originally as Nerdshack and Mailshack) intended to be a privacy-sensitive alternative to Gmail. According to the Lavabit FAQ, "Lavabit was founded... in response to Gmail. At the time, Lavabit’s founders felt Gmail was a great service but that Google was actively violating the privacy of its users by displaying ads related to keywords in their e-mail. Lavabit’s founders also felt they could provide a higher level of service than the competition." Lavabit prevents even the company's ability to access users' email accounts by using asynchronous encryption. Lavabit offers free, ad-free accounts, non-targeted ad-supported accounts, and two levels of paid accounts. Lavabit currently serves over 79,130 customers.