Scryptmail seems to be the best of the three according to
their comparison on the login page. These services are needed and something we should consider using.
https://scryptmail.com/loginIt is not. It's quite obvious that they are trying to market themselves as the best, however their comparison can only be subjective. An independent third party is needed to asses which one is the best.
They have already stated that there is absolutely no way to guarantee true zero data knowledge on a system, however they claim to have it.
However, the fact that they are based in the US worries me a bit.
I agree to a degree. If everything is encrypted and they hold no private keys then it should not matter. However, like lavabit they could be forced to cease operations if pressure was applied.
I don't think Switzerland is the answer either. They have been in bed with the USA forever. Remember the soccer scandal a few weeks ago when they were cooperating with the USA to bring down those crooks?
You're putting apples and oranges in one bucket. What those officials have been doing is illegal and not related to spying. It was pretty obvious from their bank records that they've been using money from the wrong purposes. This has nothing to do with spying. Switzerland has excellent privacy laws compared to the USA, and you're pretty much unreachable with Protonmail.
Anything based in the USA should not be deemed as safe considering all events in the past year or two.