I think the author is extremely misguided.<p>1) Iceland is not a safe harbor from the NSA. Iceland is fully within the U.S. orbit. Iceland, actually does not maintain a standing army and its defense is the responsibility of the U.S. In addition, banking is a significant portion of Iceland&#x27;s economy, and thus vulnerable to the U.S. cutting of access to SWIFT. Basically, if the U.S. really wants something from Iceland, it will be able to get it.<p>2) By making the front page of HN, the author is sure to have been noticed by somebody at the NSA. Because, the NSA has pretty broad authorizations for intercepting and decrypting foreign messages (that is actually why they exist), there is a very good chance that they are probably reading the author&#x27;s email right now. If the email server had been in the U.S., there would have been at least some political&#x2F;legal considerations about reading the email. By being in Iceland, there are none, and I am sure the author&#x27;s email presented a very easy challenge (and probably is the butt of an inside joke about how this naive person thought their setup was NSA-proof)