If you use something like protonmail aren't you sending a signal like, "Look at me I've got something to hide!"?

If I were role-playing as some mighty and wealthy intelligence bureaucracy, I'd likely monitor anyone using such services as well as Tor, etc. No?

I do like protonmail btw and am concerned about privacy in general, esp for the maintenance of democracy. And I'm not at all against the intelligence bureaucracies, presuming that their true goals are... to protect and serve, and that they are law abiding and accountable.

The more "normal" (bad word but you get what i mean) people using protonmail, the weaker that signal becomes :) Same deal with Tor

Yes, agreed.

I think it's more about adhering to ones own values than keeping your mail secure from rouge nation states. For example, I don't use google (except for the occasional search) and use privacy focused products almost exclusively instead. Yet if a government agency decides to violate my privacy, they wont find anything of interest.

It's about doing what you can.

Besides, using privacy focused products sends a clear signal to companies that privacy is something we want.

or promoting secure communications and having your own privacy too. if everyone is using these means do you still stand out.

it can make you stand out but if the security is good they may have to use indirect means to compromise you you would need to be quit a person of interest i would think though for that.

+1 for Tutanota, love the fact that you can sign-up without a phone number: https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/anonymous-email

self hosted iredmail on a raspberry/old laptop/home server/rented server/VPS?