[melle]

I believe all their good intentions and I do hope they succeed. But for me it's too early to tell whether their business model will hold. If they build up a sufficiently large user base, but fail to monetize it and sell the company to e.g. Microsoft or Facebook, then I doubt how much of their original privacy / openness remains.

Another thing that I wonder about: Does being Swiss-based give them a privacy advantage?

[laksjd]

It might be mostly marketing since the Swiss have long switched from a 'swiss banking secrecy' mindset to fairly open cooperation with EU and US investigators.

It's probably nevertheless better than being based in the US, just ask Lavabit ;)